Anti-Cancer
Photosonx Has Two Main Areas of Focus:
Early Diagnosis and Treatment
Effective Treatment of Metastatic Disease
Link to PubMed Peer-Reviewed Articles
Early Diagnosis and Treatment
A perfect example is the Pap smear, which detects premalignant changes in the cells of the cervix. That simple procedure, followed by the surgical removal of any lesions, has dropped the incidence and death rates from cervical cancer by 78% and 79%, respectively since the practice began in the 1950s. In countries where Pap smears aren't done, cervical cancer is a leading killer of women.
In order to appreciate the value of early diagnosis consider the following graph of typical cancer cell growth (showing numbers of tumor cell versus time and how many cells have to be present to be detected using traditional methods of diagnosis.).
Photosonx is developing breakthrough methods of early cancer detection and treatment which represent a dramatically improved non-invasive, extremely cost-effective method of ‘early’ cellular detection of cancer with high patient acceptance. It allows mass screening for the early detection of cancer when the success of the treatment is dramatically increased. For illustration, the five-year survival rate of lung cancer patients discovered with the usual detection methods is less than 5% whereas the five-year survival rate for patients with early-stage lung cancer detected with sputum cytology and PDT therapy is greater than 95%. Early detection is a critical factor in improving cancer treatment results and increasing cure rates.
The Photosonx Nanotechnology process allows a novel and uniquely effective method to address this problem. This process builds on the proven effectiveness of microscopic examination of cells to determine if they have the typical pathologic changes associated with malignancy (the technique of using exfoliated malignant cells for diagnosis is called exfoliative cytology) but uses the additional observed property of cancer cells to accumulate porphyrin and other categories of photosensitizers which are photosensitive and emit fluorescence. This fluorescence provides an additional level of sensitivity for the detection of cancerous cells and allows for the system to digitally capture and process representative ‘smears’ of collected specimens from the targeted organ or tissue and utilize specially developed software to process and quantify cells in the specimen. In this manner, a dramatic technological improvement is achieved and cancer is able to be detected much earlier in the growth phase for improved treatment results
This system allows the early diagnosis (and early treatment when the likelihood of successful therapy is greatly increased) of a host of the world’s most troublesome cancers in a similar manner to the proven benefits of the ‘Pap’ smear test.
Effective Treatment of Metastatic Disease
When most malignant solid tumors are diagnosed, they are typically quite large already--the size of a grape, perhaps, with more than a billion cells in the tumor mass. By the time it's discovered, there is a strong chance that some of those cells have already broken off from the initial tumor and are on their way to another part of the body. This is called metastasis.
In the end, it is not localized tumors that kill people with cancer; it is the process of metastasis--an incredible 90% of the time. Aggressive cells spread to the bones, liver, lungs, brain, or other vital areas, wreaking havoc.
Examination of NCI grants going back to 1972, show less than 0.5% of study proposals focused primarily on metastasis- Of nearly 8,900 NCI grant proposals awarded last year, 92% didn't even mention the word metastasis.
More than a decade ago, a blue-ribbon panel of cancer-center directors concluded that clinical trials are "long, arduous," and burdened with regulation; without major change and better resources, the panel concluded, the "system is likely to remain inefficient, unresponsive, and unduly expensive."
A drug typically takes 12 to 14 years to develop and perhaps more than $802 million--that's the oft-cited cost of developing a drug.
PDT and SPDT address this problem with groundbreaking new solutions. The sensitizer collects selectively on the abnormal tumor cells and is activated by harmless red, infrared or ultra-sound energy. And with the ultra-sound, the deepest tumors and even tiny collections of cells are able to be reached and the metastatic spread addressed. Truly a remarkable advance in the treatment of metastatic cancer.
PubMed Link showing how SPDT can reach deeper into the body to treat cancer. This overcomes the limitations of less deep penetration of light using PDT
