Did you grow a moustache lately? Well, maybe you should…

Movember- our contribution to fight prostate cancer

What’s Movember about?

Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men’s health issues, such as prostate or testicular cancer.

According to the World Cancer Research Fund, prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most commonly occurring cancer in men and the fourth most commonly occurring cancer overall. There were 1.3 million new cases in 2018.

Men after the age of 65 are more likely to have this type of cancer. Currently in Europe, 1 in 7 men will develop this disease before reaching age of 85. With population growth and ageing, the numbers of PCa diagnoses and PCa deaths are expected to substantially increase.

It is estimated that by 2030, with an increase in the proportion of people over 65, the number of PCa cases will quadruple.

At Inspiralia we have worked in several innovative projects focused on fighting against prostate cancer with our innovation strategy services to secure public funding that will allow them keep researching.

Here are some examples of projects that counted on our support:

MDx Health has developed Nevada, a non-invasive urine-based test assay

Nevada, a non-invasive urine-based test that avoids unnecessary biopsies

Most PCa’s are first found through a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test. Under the current standard of care, men with an elevated PSA levels and/or abnormal digital rectal exam (DRE) are considered at high risk for cancer and will be referred to a urologist for a biopsy.

But most men selected for biopsy could have avoided this painful procedure, with its associated complications and costs. More accurate non-invasive tests could help PCa-free men safely avoid unnecessary biopsies, while helping identify men who may be harbouring aggressive PCa, who will benefit from earlier detection.
In response to this challenge, our client MDx Health has developed Nevada, a non-invasive urine-based test assay that identifies those men at increased risk of PCa who may benefit most from earlier detection.

The plan is to convert this test into a Point of Care assay, resulting in significant savings for the healthcare systems across Europe, by only referring those patients to the hospitals that are at risk for a clinically significant cancer.

Micropos Medical AB is enhancing the technology for radiotherapy treatments

Micropos, lowering tissue damage derived from radiotherapy

One of the most commonly used clinical treatments for PCa is radiotherapy. Unfortunately, it often supposes severe side effects from repetitive damage on the surrounding tissue, limiting patient’s quality of life.

Our client Micropos Medical AB is enhancing the technology for radiotherapy treatments, like hypofractionation and stereotactic radio surgery/body radiotherapy. Their RayPilot (an innovative solution for prostate gland positioning tracking during radiotherapy) has been working in several European University Hospitals since 2016.

RayPilot only has one weakness: it needs to be installed into the patient’s prostate gland by performing surgery. Now, the next generation of the Raypilot – the RayPilotHypoCath – will be possible with a minimally invasive IGRT solution that will enable targeting a wider user base and additional benefits to PCa patients and healthcare professionals and providers. This innovation combines in one system, accurate (<2mm) and precise tracking location of the tumour, patient identification and bladder volume control.

In case you want to help fight this disease, we encourage you to enter the Movember webpage here where you can see how to collaborate.

2018-11-22T09:51:18+01:00 November 8th, 2018|0 Comments