By Caitlin Tilley, Dailymail.Com Health Reporter
September 29, 2023 13:54, updated September 29, 2023 15:43
- The device is implanted in the abdomen and is smaller than a crayon.
- Researchers hope to be able to communicate wirelessly with smartphones
- Read more: Possible breakthrough in cancer as ‘breakthrough’ drug
Scientists are developing an implant smaller than a crayon that they hope can treat cancer in just 60 days.
Researchers from seven states, led by Rice University in Houston, Texas, have developed a 3-inch implantable device that acts as both a cancer detection system and a drug delivery system.
The doctor determines what medicine the patient needs and puts it into a device that releases it into the patient’s body.
The Hybrid Advanced Molecular Manufacturing Control Device (HAMMR) is packed with sensors that monitor rapidly mutating cancer cells and adjust the release of immunotherapy drugs based on patient response.
“This type of ‘closed-loop therapy’ is used in diabetes management, where a blood glucose monitor continuously communicates with an insulin pump. But for cancer immunotherapy, this is revolutionary,” said the team’s lead researcher, bioengineer Omid Beise.
This new device is one of many new cancer treatment technologies in development. Just recently, early research has discovered a “game-changing” pill that can eradicate all types of solid tumors.
Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses substances made in the body or in a lab to boost the immune system in the hopes that the body will fight cancer naturally.
Researchers claim first-of-its-kind technology could improve immunotherapy outcomes for hard-to-treat cancers such as ovarian and pancreatic cancers and reduce cancer deaths in the U.S. by 50% are doing.
Dr. Amir Jazaeli, the team’s other principal investigator, said the device will help “understand in real time how cancer cells are changing, allowing us to make changes in parallel.” said it was helpful.
A minimally invasive procedure allows the device to be implanted in the abdomen.
It then constantly monitors the patient’s cancer and adjusts the dose of the immunotherapy drug in real time.
“The device may communicate wirelessly with a smartphone and can also be charged externally,” Dr. Jazaeli said. KHOU11.
“This is basically how you charge your iWatch today,” Dr. Vesieh says.
The implant will allow doctors to respond to changes in cancer much faster than the current system of waiting for test results to develop a new treatment plan, which can take months.
The team recently received funding for a phase one clinical trial of an implant to treat recurrent ovarian cancer.
Researchers claim HAMMR will only be needed for about two months, as they hope it can cure a patient’s cancer within 60 days.
Their goal is to clinically test the device in humans within five years.
In Texas alone, more than 130,000 people are newly diagnosed with cancer each year, and more than 42,000 people die from cancer each year.
In a potential further advance in cancer, neurosurgeons earlier this month developed a device the size of a grain of rice that they hope could be a breakthrough in the treatment of deadly brain tumors.
The 6 mm long gadget is implanted on the surface of the tumor and releases a drug into the tumor to shrink or kill it.
When implanted in difficult-to-treat brain tumors, the device can administer multiple different cancer drugs at once.
The trial was conducted on six patients with glioblastoma, the deadly brain tumor that killed President Joe Biden’s son, Joseph (Beau) Biden III, and Sen. John McCain.
Their main goal was to determine if the device could be safely implanted, and it turns out that it is.
