[nanoPost] Innovative means of treating liver cancer

Company Australia

- The company's microspheres are an innovative means of treating liver cancer.

- In cases where it is not possible to surgically remove the liver tumors, microspheres can be used to deliver targeted, internal radiation therapy directly to the tumor.

Technology Platform
 

 
- This technique uses millions of tiny polymer beads or microspheres which contain a radioactive element called yttrium-90. Spheres microspheres are very small, approximately 32 microns in size, and are about one-third the diameter of a strand of hair.

- The technique is usually administered as an outpatient procedure by a specially trained physician known as an interventional radiologist.

- A small catheter is guided into the liver and the Spheres microspheres are infused through the catheter. The microspheres with the radioactive yttrium-90 are carried by the bloodstream directly to the tumors in the liver where they preferentially lodge in the small vessels feeding the tumor and deliver their dose of radiation.

- Unlike conventional external beam radiation, which can only be applied to limited areas of the body, the microspheres selectively irradiate the tumors and therefore have the ability to deliver more potent doses of radiation directly to the cancer cells over a longer period of time.

Regulation/Product Development

The company has commercialized radioactive particle technology. A product candidate in development uses relatively large (micron size) magnetic particles injected into the hepatic artery followed by application of alternating magnetic fields.

The product and the procedure has been refined and many hundreds of patients have been treated. The microspheres received PMA approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002.