October is known as breast cancer awareness month and it’s important we all help spread the message as 1 out of 8 women will be diagnosed with this terrible disease during their lifetime. It’s less common, but it will also affect about 1 in 1.000 men.
In one way or another, we are all bound to be confronted with this topic. Our participation in the HYPOSENS project has presented Inspiralia with the possibility to make a change for the better by offering our technical capacities and knowledge in the development of a minimally invasive alternative to the sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) process.
In line with our mission to develop new products for our clients, improve their sustainability and profitability we thereby contribute to a better society as our Technical Development department, more precisely the materials group (one of three areas of specialization, the others being electronics and computational engineering) is involved in this breakthrough project with ambitious targets to:
- Substantially improve in-depth diagnosis.
- Develop more effective treatment of breast cancer.
- Significantly decrease the diagnostic costs associated with metastatic breast cancer progression.
- Improve the general lifestyle and well-being of both the cancer patients and their loved ones.
- Take a step forward in cancer progression prognosis by eliminating the procedure SLNB currently used in breast, vulvar, colorectal and gastric cancer, pelvic and renal tumors (via the use of different tumor-targeting moieties).
The research carried out will focus on the development, pre-clinical and clinical validation, and industrial demonstration of a unique all optical cancer prognostic system that will determine the presence of cancer cells in the breast lymph nodes and characterize them, which correlates with the presence of metastasis and bad prognosis.
For more information on this project please visit the project homepage.
Note to reader: Don’t forget to check your breast regularly, at least once a month. Contact your local doctor if you detected any changes. Acting early can make a significant difference. If you need some guidance and tips on what to look for here’s a good infographic on the topic.
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