Convection enhanced delivery for treating brain tumors and selected neurological disorders: symposium review

In 2003 the Cleveland Clinic Brain Tumor Institute sponsored a symposium to mark the progress being made in what was then a new approach to treating brain tumors—convection enhanced delivery (CED) [Vogelbaum MA (2005) J NeuroOncol 73(1):57–69]. A second symposium was held in February, 2006, to review new accomplishments and identify promising avenues of research in this evolving but still novel therapy. Among the general subjects covered by a host of international experts in their respective fields were advances in CED technology, new clinical applications of the technology, advances in CED-related imaging procedures, reviews of current or proposed trials, new drugs and the status of projects moving from lab to clinical practice. Specific subjects included the design of new catheters, the development of mathematic models for planning, novel therapeutics for CED treatment of stroke, spinal cord degenerative disease and epilepsy, liposome-based agents administered via CED, ultra-sound driven CED, monitoring the in vivo effects of intratumoral paclitaxel and other topics. Each speaker’s presentation has been abstracted along with relevant references.