December 2025

NEUROSCIENCES

FASTER APPROACH TO DETERMINE GLIOBLASTOMA TREATMENT EFFECTIVENESS DEVELOPED

Northwestern Medicine, University of Michigan researchers develop microfluid chip to monitor glioblastoma treatment response.

Researchers at Northwestern Medicine and University of Michigan have developed a faster approach to determine if treatment for glioblastoma is working.

Northwestern Medicine researchers have previously conducted trials with the Sonocloud-9 device that opens the blood-brain barrier for about an hour so that chemotherapy can enter. In a new analysis published in Nature Communications, Northwestern Medicine and University of Michigan researchers found that opening the blood-brain barrier allows tumor content to leak into the blood, making it possible to test for brain cancer response to chemotherapy. This study was primarily funded by the National Institutes of Health. 

“Instead of removing tumor tissue, we analyzed blood for tumor material, known as extra-cellular vesicles or exosomes,” says Northwestern Medicine Neurosurgeon Adam M. Sonabend, MD, one of the study’s authors. “Historically, that has not worked for brain tumors because of the blood-brain barrier posing a challenge for liquid biopsy for brain diseases.”

The researchers tested tiny particles released by the brain tumors — called extracellular vesicles (EVs) — that could be measured in the blood after temporarily opening the blood-brain barrier.

​To do this, researchers worked to develop GlioExoChip, a microfluidic chip that isolates tumor-derived exosomes and provides a minimally invasive way to monitor treatment response.

“Opening the blood-brain barrier allows tumor-derived vesicles to be measured in blood, providing a clinically meaningful liquid biopsy signal,” says Mark Youngblood, MD, PhD, neurosurgery resident at Northwestern Medicine and co-lead author of the study. “The GlioExoChip provides a quick and minimally invasive way to monitor treatment response in a disease where MRI scans often give misleading results.”

"There are tiny particles floating in patient blood, called extracellular vesicles, that have been released by the cancer cells. These particles act as messengers, carrying special bits of genetic tumor material and proteins”, says Sunitha Nagrath, PhD, the Dwight F. Benton Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan and co-corresponding author of the study. “The big challenge is figuring out how to find and pull out only those that come from cancer cells and not from elsewhere in the body.”

The next steps for the researchers will be to validate their findings with other therapies and explore the potential to expand to other therapies. 

“Instead of waiting months, we can know after one dose if a given treatment is working,” says Dr. Sonabend. “It could potentially prevent patients from getting prolonged treatments that are ineffective, thus also avoid unnecessary side effects.”

Additional support for the study was provided by: 
  • The Lou and Jean Malnati Brain Tumor Institute of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University
  • The Moceri Family Foundation 
  • The University of Michigan Forbes Institute for Cancer Discovery
  • The United States Department of Defense
  • The American Brain Tumor Association 
  • Tap Out Cancer 
  • The Focused Ultrasound Foundation 
Adam M. Sonabend, MD, is an associate professor of Neurological Surgery at Northwestern Medicine.

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