NanoEcho has been given the go-ahead to begin clinical trials on surgically removed rectal cancer tissue at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg and at Skåne University Hospital in Malmö. The first patient has now been recruited at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. NanoEcho is developing a new medical imaging technique for the diagnosis of rectal cancer. The ambition is to contribute to a more reliable mapping of cancer spread to nearby lymph nodes, which is an important marker of how far along the cancer is.
The first patient has now been recruited at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. On June 17 the clinical trail, on surgically removed rectal cancer tissue, will start using the company’s first-generation portable system, under the condition that nothing unforeseen happens. The recruitment procedure is ongoing at Skåne University Hospital in Malmö as well. The studies will compare results from NanoEcho’s diagnostic method with other imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and pathology. Patient recruitment will be ongoing at both university hospitals and the studies will last for one to two years from their respective start dates.
The results of these clinical development studies will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of our existing system and guide the design of our next system for commercialization. Together, these two studies will provide us with a comprehensive analysis of the system’s performance, as both patients with different positions of the tumor in the rectum and patients with different stages of cancer are included,” says NanoEcho CEO Linda Persson.
Eva Angenete, Professor of Surgery and Senior Consultant at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, is leading the study in Gothenburg, which will include about 20 patients:
In the study, we will ensure that the system works to easily diagnose lymph node proliferation. This could be a very interesting and good development towards a simpler and cheaper diagnostic tool.
Henrik Thorlacius, Professor of Surgery at Lund University and Senior Consultant at Skåne University Hospital in Malmö, is leading the study in Malmö, which will involve about 40 patients:
Patients will undergo routine standard surgery. Once the cancer is removed from the patient, we will take the surgically removed specimen and examine it with NanoEcho’s instrument and then compare the result with the final microscopic examination by the pathologist.
