Cerebral Microdialysis as a Tool for Assessing the Delivery of Chemotherapy in Brain Tumor Patients

The development of curative treatment for glioblastoma has been extremely challenging. Chemotherapeutic agents that have seemed promising have failed in clinical trials. Drugs that can successfully target cancer cells within the brain must first traverse the brain interstitial fluid. Cerebral microdialysis (CMD) is an invasive technique in which interstitial fluid can be directly sampled. CMD has primarily been used clinically in the setting of head trauma and subarachnoid hemorrhage. Our goal was to review the techniques, principles, and new data pertaining to CMD to highlight its use in neuro-oncology. We conducted a literature search using the PubMed database and selected studies in which the investigators had used CMD in either animal brain tumor models or clinical trials. The references were reviewed for additional information. Studies of CMD have shown its importance as a neurosurgical technique. CMD allows for the collection of pharmacokinetic data on drug penetrance across the blood-brain barrier and metabolic data to characterize the response to chemotherapy. Although no complications have been reported, the current CMD technique (as with any procedure) has risks and limitations, which we have described in the present report. Animal CMD experiments have been used to exclude central nervous system drug candidates from progressing to clinical trials. At present, patients undergoing CMD have been monitored in the intensive care unit, owing to the requisite tethering to the apparatus. This can be expected to change soon because of advances in microminiaturization. CMD is an extremely valuable, yet underused, technique. Future CMD applications will have central importance in assessing drug delivery to tumor cells in vivo, allowing a pathway to successful therapy for malignant brain tumors.