TECHNOLOGY

Targeted Drug Delivery

Many cancers – think liver cancer close to the bile ducts, as an example – are not surgically resectable. These tumors are often treated with therapeutics that need to be injected directly into the tumor. In these cases, interventional radiologists work under imaging to direct injecting needles to the tumor site. However, imaging isn’t perfect. It can be difficult to tell that the injecting needle is exactly in the tumor and not a small distance outside. And when this happens efficacy may be reduced, and side effects may result.

NovaScan can change this. NovaScan’s cancer detecting electrodes can be less than a millimeter in size and can be mounted on the tip of the injecting needle. These electrodes can provide verification that the injecting needle are absolutely, positively in the tumor when injecting. By doing this, NovaScan can both improve efficacy and reduce toxicity in therapeutics in challenging cancer cases.