Researchers at Rice University have created a cytokine delivery system that can produce localized immunotherapy at a tumor site for 15-30 days. The technology consists of cytokine-producing ARPE-19 cells that the researchers have encapsulated in small polymer beads. The beads can be delivered into the body using minimally invasive techniques and th (Read more...)
Tag: Oncology
MRI-Guided Magnetic Seeds Heat and Destroy Tumors
Scientists at University College London have developed a highly targeted anti-tumor treatment. The approach involves guiding ferromagnetic thermoseeds to the site of a tumor using the magnetic fields generated by an MRI scanner. The magnetic seeds can then destroy the tumor through localized heating that is induced by an MR-compatible thermoablativ (Read more...)
Optical Biopsy to Spot Tumors Among Healthy Tissue
Researchers at Orel State University in Russia have developed a biopsy system that can distinguish between healthy and cancerous tissue in many clinical cases. The device is designed to address the difficulties that clinicians may experience when trying to obtain a biopsy of a liver tumor, where it can be difficult to know if the […]
Hairy Nanocrystals Capture Chemo Drugs
Researchers at Penn State working with collaborators have developed a nanomaterial that can ‘mop up’ chemotherapeutics in the bloodstream, helping to reduce off-target effects. The technology is intended for use in situations where a chemotherapeutic can be delivered precisely to the site of a tumor, and not in situations where it is de (Read more...)
New Hydrogel Material for Vocal Cord Repair
Researchers at McGill University developed a tough hydrogel that can resist mechanical forces found in the body. However, the material still provides a friendly environment for encapsulated cells to grow and enables the deep perfusion of blood and other tissue fluids. The injectable biomaterial may be useful in repairing tissues that experience con (Read more...)
Fish-Shaped Microrobots to Deliver Chemotherapy to Tumors
Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China, working with outside collaborators, have developed shape-shifting microrobots that are designed to be guided to a target area in the body using magnets, and then release a drug cargo in response to the local environment. The application that the researchers have pursued involves gu (Read more...)
Cold Cap Therapy for Chemo Patients: Interview with Kate Dilligan, CEO of Cooler Heads Care
Cooler Heads Care, a medtech company based in San Diego, created Amma, a cold cap therapy device that aims to help chemotherapy patients to preserve their hair. Hair loss is a very common side-effect of chemo, and poses a significant psychological challenge for patients who are already struggling with their diagnosis and treatment. Simply cooling [ (Read more...)
Weighing Cancer Cells for Chemotherapy Susceptibility Testing
A collaboration between groups at MIT and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute led to the creation of a system that allows for quick determination of the susceptibility of cancer cells to specific drugs, without the need to rely on genomic markers. The technique consists of flowing the cells through vibrating microchannels, which lets the researchers obtai (Read more...)
Handheld Photoacoustic Device for Lymph Node Assessment
Researchers at Pohang University of Science & Technology in South Korea have developed a handheld photoacoustic device that can locate sentinel lymph nodes near the armpit. The technology could help clinicians to locate the correct lymph node from which to take a biopsy when checking for breast cancer metastases. At present, this process involv (Read more...)
Pancreatic Organoids Grown Inside Synthetic Gel
A team at MIT has developed a technique to grow organoids, both from healthy and cancerous pancreatic tissue, using a synthetic gel that predictably mimics the pancreatic extracellular environment. Compared with naturally derived materials, the synthetic gel is consistent from batch to batch, meaning that it leads to more reproducible and predictab (Read more...)
Oscillating Magnetic Field Shrinks Glioblastoma Tumor
At the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute, researchers have developed a device that generates a magnetic field and used it to successfully shrink a glioblastoma tumor in a patient volunteer. The device is worn on the head each day during treatment, and uses an oscillating magnetic field to disrupt biochemical processes in cancer cells. While (Read more...)
Robotic Brace Measures Neck Mobility in Cancer Patients
Patients with head and neck cancer frequently require surgical removal of lymph nodes from the neck. While this is necessary, it can cause pain and stiffness that can persist for a long time after surgery. Assessing neck mobility of such patients would be useful, as it would allow doctors to identify deficits in range of […]
(Read more...)Nanoparticles for Tumor Imaging and Cancer Urine Testing
Scientists at MIT have announced that they developed novel nanoparticles to detect cancer in urine samples. As well as detecting the presence of tumors, the nanoparticles can also accumulate at tumor sites and function as an imaging agent, helping to identify their location. These multifunctional particles could be very useful for routine cancer sc (Read more...)
AI and Multispectral Photoacoustic Imaging to Diagnose Thyroid Cancer
Researchers at Pohang University of Science & Technology in South Korea are reporting on having developed a technique for minimally invasive diagnosis of thyroid cancer. The method combines multispectral photoacoustic imaging and machine learning, and is conceived as a replacement for invasive and occasionally inaccurate fine-needle aspiration (Read more...)
AI System Spots Prostate Cancer During Routine CT Scans
Researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, created an AI system that can identify prostate cancer during routine CT scans. It is typically difficult to spot prostate cancer in CT images, and the radiation makes CT unsuitable as a screening modality. However, if men are undergoing abdominal or pelvic scans for other reasons, this latest (Read more...)
AI System Spots Prostate Cancer During Routine CT Scans
Researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, created an AI system that can identify prostate cancer during routine CT scans. It is typically difficult to spot prostate cancer in CT images, and the radiation makes CT unsuitable as a screening modality. However, if men are undergoing abdominal or pelvic scans for other reasons, this latest (Read more...)
AI System Spots Prostate Cancer During Routine CT Scans
Researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, created an AI system that can identify prostate cancer during routine CT scans. It is typically difficult to spot prostate cancer in CT images, and the radiation makes CT unsuitable as a screening modality. However, if men are undergoing abdominal or pelvic scans for other reasons, this latest (Read more...)
Inexpensive Filter Isolates Circulating Tumor Cells
Researchers at Kumamoto University in Japan have designed an inexpensive and convenient filter that can isolate circulating tumor cells from as little as 1 mL of patient blood. The highly sensitive filter can successfully work in samples containing as few as five tumor cells in 1 mL of blood, and does not require expensive equipment […]
Localized Prostate Cancer Therapy: Interview with Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health
Avenda Health, a medtech company based in Santa Monica, California has developed the Focal Therapy System. It provides AI-powered prostate cancer therapy with the aim of treating only tumorous tissues, while reducing side-effects compared with conventional therapies. The system recently received FDA breakthrough designation. At present, ther (Read more...)
Trojan Horse Virus Makes Tumors Destroy Themselves
Researchers at the University of Zurich have developed a virus-based therapy that causes a tumor to destroy itself. They modified an adenovirus, which is a common virus that typically infects the respiratory tract and which is already widely used in medicine, to deliver genetic material that codes for an anti-cancer protein. In a sneaky move, [&hel (Read more...)