Project Summary/Abstract Glioblastoma (GBM) remains a fatal brain cancer for which there is no cure. Maximal safe tumor resection combined with adjuvant therapies such as fractionated external beam radiation therapy (RT) and temozolomide (TMZ) chemotherapy, known as chemoradiation (CRT), has provided the greatest benefit to GBM patients. However, local recurrence occurs in most patients due to invasive therapy-resistant infiltrating cancer cells at the tumor margin. Magnetic hyperthermia therapy (MHT) is a powerful nanotechnology-based treatment that may enhance the effects of CRT. MHT consists of local heat generation in the tumor region through direct delivery of magnetic iron-oxide nanoparticles (MIONPs) that are activated by exposure to an external alternating magnetic field (AMF) that is safe to normal cells. The AMF interacts with the magnetic dipoles of the MIONPs to generate local heat and hyperthermia. Human clinical trials have demonstrated overall survival benefits of MHT with fractionated RT in recurrent GBM resulting in European approval. Current MHT strategies, however, require high concentrations of nontargeted MIONPs (>100 mg/ml; 50-100mg Fe/g of tumor) delivered by injection with leakback and without image-guided control of energy deposition. As a result, normal tissue injury limits MHT effectiveness and treatment of the infiltrative tumor margins is poorly defined, which compromises MHT efficacy. Our proposal is designed to address these challenges, optimize the translational potential for enhanced MHT of GBM in combination with CRT, and study some of the mechanisms by which MHT invokes tumor cell death, blood-brain and blood-tumor barrier permeability, and immune cell recruitment when administered alone and in combination with CRT in vitro and in a mouse model. We have recently completed a pilot study in spontaneous canine gliomas demonstrating feasibility and safety of image-guided MIONP delivery alone. We hypothesize that MHT will enhance CRT of GBM. We propose to evaluate the enhancement of CRT by MHT in mouse GBM models with an innovative MIONP formulation. We have Preliminary Data that demonstrate intracranial hyperthermia with a 3-fold increase in TMZ concentration within GBM tumors, leading to a robust antitumor effect with increased survival after MHT + CRT in a therapy-resistant rodent glioma model.