Novel Technique Finds and Kills Residual Cancer Cells

An innovative concept has the potential to assist the early detection and treatment of cancer regrowth, as well as infections within chronic wounds.

Developed by researcher at Team Consulting (Cambridge, United Kingdom), the new technology, dubbed Spatial Reach, gives clinicians the ability to noninvasively monitor the site of an internal tumor excision or a chronic wound. Once a site has been analyzed, the same platform can be used to deliver highly targeted therapy to the precise areas where treatment is required, without exposing nearby tissue directly either to chemotherapy agents or to unnecessary antibiotics.


The technology uses low-cost porous hollow fiber tubing placed in a continuous spiral or zigzag pattern into (or onto) the target area. The tubing is filled with saline and the surgical site is then closed. With the tubing in place, any biomarkers of cancer or infection can diffuse into the tube, and the presence of cancer regrowth or infection can then be monitored by pumping out and analyzing the column of fluid on a handheld reader, indicating not only presence but also a precise location.

Once analyzed, the Spatial Reach platform can then be run “in reverse,” delivering chemotherapy or antibiotics back to just those areas within the wound where it is required. The drug can then diffuse out of the porous tubing, allowing toxic chemotherapy to be used without causing damage to healthy tissue. It will also allow powerful antibiotics against drug resistant bacteria too toxic to be given to vulnerable patients systemically, to be delivered locally. The technique has the potential to dramatically reduce patient recovery time and increase the survival rate of critically ill patients.

“Currently there are very few tools available for healthcare professionals to adequately monitor tumor excision sites and wounds, and most techniques employed today involve significant distress for patients,” said Ben Wicks, PhD, head of critical care at Team Consulting. “By contrast our new system enables samples to be taken, and medication to be delivered, without disturbing patients at all which could have a dramatic impact on the efficacy of therapy.”

“If proven, this technology could offer for the first time the ability to simply, safely and continuously target delivery of both chemotherapeutic and biological therapies to locoregional areas of the brain,” said Professor of Neurosurgery Garth Cruickshank, MD, of Birmingham University (United Kingdom). “Significantly this would avoid problems of access such as the Blood Brain Barrier and problems of systemic toxicity as in the treatment of bone marrow.”

Related Links:
Team Consulting
Birmingham University