Thread by @faaizenam

Cooling brain tumors. Prolonging (rodent) lives.
🧠🐭

Out in @ScienceAdvances:
science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

@dukeengineering @utswnews @AKUGlobal
#glioblastoma #bioengineering #medicaldevices #cancer #brain

Question that hit me on October 26th, 2017: is there a temperature window that stops 🛑 tumor growth, and the brain 🧠 can tolerate? If so, this could prevent tumor recurrence and buy the patient time to try therapies until we reach a cure.
2/12

🔑findings:
1. Tumor cells stop growing at room temperature (20-25°C). Remember, body temperature is 37°C.
Even 18 hours of cooling per day can be enough! 🕒 This point will be useful for a device in the future.
3/12

2. Hypothermia slows multiple cell processes. It's great for 2 reasons: a. tumors may not develop resistance (which happens when we target a single process); b. results aren't limited to rats🐭; should work for humans too! It's fundamental physics that affects biology broadly. 4/

3. Hypothermia could work with or in between chemo- and immuno-therapies! This was a very surprising in vitro finding 🔬 (still to be tested in vivo 🐀). It could keep remnant tumor cells at bay before the next therapy is tried or developed.
5/12

4. We made little devices to locally and continuously cool the brain tumor. Our rats were able to eat, grow, and move around freely🕺while continuously receiving local hypothermia treatment over weeks. 🗓️
6/12

5. Rats that had their device switched on (i.e. had their brain tumors cooled) survived at least twice as long as those with their device off (the controls). Those whose tumors reached the appropriate temperature survived the full study period!!! 🌟
7/12

This was my baby and passion side project for a couple years. I still remember the afternoon the idea struck 💡. It kept me up days and nights dreaming, building, and testing. 🧠🦾😍
But none of this would be possible without mentors and teams:
8/12

1. the training, mentorship, wisdom, and financial support I received from @ravibell
2. the tireless assistance of my mentees @cemyigitkilicc (immunotherapy), @JianxiHuang (chemotherapy), @brianjkang (animal work), @ReedRChen (computation), Connor (metabolism)
9/12

4. the expert help of Martha (surgeries), Dr. Ilich (assays), Dr. Blocker (MRI), Dr. Buckley (Pathology), Steven Owen (fabrication), and @boxofbox (electronics and mentorship).
5. and, of course, my family for making me who I am and pushing and supporting me throughout this
10/12

I'd also like to take a moment to remember the 40 rats who gave their lives to this study. 🐭🍃

Let us always try to find alternates when we can, but when we cannot, let us respect and remember.
11/12

What's next for cytostatic hypothermia and brain tumors?

Making an implantable device for pigs 🐷 (to see if it still works) and then on to humans 🧑‍🤝‍🧑. I've been prototyping this device @UTSWNews @UTSWScience via a Sprout grant from earlier this year thanks to @UTSWBrain.
12/12