Elekta, the big name in radiotherapy, radiosurgery, and oncology informatics that’s based in Sweden, recently partnered with IBM to offer the Watson for Oncology artificial intelligence (AI) platform along with its MOSAIQ Oncology Information System and other cancer care solutions. According to Richard Hausmann, the CEO of Elekta, it is “the first radiation therapy company […]
Tag: Oncology
New Highly Effective Camera for Spotting Dye Tagged Tumors
A collaboration between researchers at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Washington University in St. Louis has led to the development of a highly sensitive new camera for detecting fluorescent markers tagged on cancer tumors. It is smaller, more accurate, and relies on cheaper parts than existing devices used to detect the same near-infrared fluorescent […]
Hybrid Nanoparticles Reassemble on Cancer Cells and Glow to Point Their Location
At the University of Southern California researchers have developed a hybrid nanoprobe for spotting the presence of live cancer cells by amplifying a chemical biomarker often found on cell’s surface. The team’s nanoprobe comes together when two gold nanoparticles, each containing one half of a fluorescent protein and that hone in on tumors, meet on […]
Portable Device Can Monitor White Blood Cell Levels Non-Invasively
Scientists at MIT have developed a portable device that can measure white blood cell levels in chemotherapy patients without having to take a blood sample. The device can visualize blood cells flowing through capillaries in the nail bed and determine if white blood cell levels are at acceptable or dangerously low levels. Chemotherapy can have […]
ivWatch Detects IV Infiltrations and Extravasations: Interview with Gary Warren, President and CEO
ivWatch is a medical device manufacturer who we met with during CES 2018 in Las Vegas a couple months ago. They have developed of a non-invasive device that aims to establish a new standard of care for peripheral intravenous (IV) monitoring. The FDA-cleared ivWatch continuously monitors a patient’s IV for the early detection of infiltrations and […]
Partial Wave Spectroscopy Spots Cells Turning to Cancer
Detecting cancer in the body usually happens when the disease is already well underway to being mortally dangerous. Although there’s a myriad of cancers and ways to detect them, diagnostic tests typically look for biomarkers produced by tumors. And the bigger the tumor, the more biomarkers it releases, so the bigger it is the easier […]
3D Jet Writing Creates Highly Porous Polymer Microtissue for Drug Screening
Researchers at Purdue University and University of Michigan have developed a device they call a 3D jet writer, which can print high-resolution polymer microtissues on a small scale, with appropriate pore sizes to allow cancer cell infiltration. The researchers hope that the printed tissues will allow them to study cancer metastasis and conduct drug screens […]
Acoustic Shear Poration Technique to Deliver Genetic Material into Cells
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a new technique to deliver genetic material into cells. Called Acoustic Shear Poration (ASP), the method combines ultrasound waves and focused mechanical force to create pores in the cell membrane, allowing genetic material to enter the cell. Gene therapy holds enormous promise, but getting DNA and […]
Microfluidic Device to Capture Tumor-Specific Extracellular Vesicles
Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a microfluidic device to capture tumor-derived extracellular vesicles from patient blood samples. The device paves the way for minimally invasive characterization and monitoring of difficult-to-treat cancers, such as glioblastoma. Assessing biomarkers present in the blood is a promising way to characterize and keep track of tumors, but some […]
Injectable Hydrogel Responds to Tumors to Release Chemo and Immunotherapies
Scientists at the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University have developed an injectable polymer hydrogel that breaks down in response to reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by tumor cells. During its controlled degradation, the hydrogel releases a chemotherapeutic drug and an immunotherapy to kill surrounding tumor cells. Cancer immunotherapies have shown significant […]
Nanomachines Create Clots Inside Vessels Feeding Cancer Tumors
Researchers from Arizona State University and National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a remarkable new way of killing tumors. They’ve developed robot-like nanoscale devices that cling to the walls of tumor vessels, release a clotting agent, and block the tumor from receiving nutrients. These nanorobots, which consist […]
Machine Learning for Building Personalized Cancer Nanomedicines: Interview with Dr. Daniel Heller
Researchers at the Sloan Kettering Institute and the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York have developed a machine learning approach to design personalized nanoparticle therapies for cancer. Personalized cancer therapies aim to provide a treatment that is tailored to the genetic makeup of a patient’s tumor. They can still cause side […]
U.S. to Get Its Own Supply of Radioisotopes Thanks to Approval of RadioGenix System
A good deal of advanced medical imaging to spot cancer tumors, and help to diagnose coronary artery disease and other conditions, relies on injecting radioisotopes into the body whose location can be tracked. The most common is technetium-99m (Tc-99m), but it has been in short supply because there are only a few nuclear power stations […]
Bursting Oxygen-loaded Microbubbles Near Solid Tumors Can Enhance Radiation Therapy
Scientists at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have developed a new technique to improve the effectiveness of radiation therapy for solid tumors. Their method employs nanotechnology in the form of oxygen-filled microbubbles that can be burst using focused ultrasound when they are near a tumor. The majority of solid tumors are oxygen-deficient as they quickly […]
Biomaterial Scaffold to Culture T Cells for Immune Cell Therapy
Researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute have developed a biomaterial scaffold that mimics the actions of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) in stimulating T cell growth and survival. The scaffold allowed the researchers to significantly expand T cell numbers in a dish, compared with existing culture methods, and could bring T cell therapies, such as anti-cancer treatments, […]
FDA Clears MEVION S250i Proton Therapy System with Pencil Beam Technology
Mevion Medical Systems, a company specializing in accelerating protons to very high energies, has now received FDA clearance for its new MEVION S250i system for intensity modulated proton therapy. The product features the company’s HYPERSCAN pencil beam scanning technology, that involves “energy layer switching” and automated collimation, which produces a narrow beam of protons to […]
Microbeads Significantly Improve Ultrasonic Targeting for Therapy, Research
Ultrasonic therapy, sonogenetics, and ultrasounic modulation are techniques that rely on focused, high precision sound waves to do things like stimulating neural cells to fire, motivating other cells to repair themselves, and killing tumors by damaging their cellular membranes. So-called cavitation bubbles, in which air bubbles rapidly vibrate, are the mechanism through which ultrasound acts […]
Nanowire Brush Captures Extracellular Vesicles in Urine, May Help Screen for Cancer
At Nagoya University in Japan, researchers have developed a nanowire-based device to extract large numbers of microRNA strands found in urine. The technology may provide a way to identify the presence of cancers and other diseases through easy to gather patient samples. Over the past few years, researchers have been focusing on how cells within […]
Nanoparticle-Based Imaging of Metastasis Throughout Body
Common radiological tumor detection technique these days is done using contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can only detect tumors of a certain size or larger. This is a major limitation, as it leaves patients with smaller tumors that grow and spread undetected, preventing early treatment of many cancers. Researchers at Rutgers University have just […]
Synthetic Lethality Nanoparticles Kill Difficult to Treat Cancers
Researchers at the University of Iowa have developed dual-action nanoparticles that have been shown, in a laboratory study, to selectively kill endometrial cancer (uterine serous carcinoma) cells. The therapeutic approach combines paclitaxel, a common chemo agent, and nintedanib, aka BIBF 1120, a new cancer drug that is typically used to hinder angiogenesis, but in the […]