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news.Lightpoint Medical has received a €2.4m grant from the European Commission as part of the Horizon 2020 European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, enabling the company to carry out a large-scale clinical trial in breast cancer.
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The study aims to cut the rate of re-operations in breast cancer, potentially preventing many thousands of women globally from facing additional surgery, and providing significant cost savings to national healthcare systems.
Surgery remains the primary treatment for breast cancer, yet its failure rate is high. A quarter of women undergoing surgery for breast cancer will have to deal with the distress of being recalled for a repeat operation.
Today surgery fails so often because surgeons today have to rely solely on sight and touch to differentiate cancerous from healthy tissue. The consequence of which is a further procedure to remove any remaining cancer.
Using the Horizon 2020 funding, Lightpoint Medical will evaluate the LightPath Imaging System as a means of identifying cancer in a study involving over 300 breast cancer patients involving several hospitals in the UK, Germany, and France.
The company recently announced the commercial launch of the LightPath system following CE Mark authorisation and pioneering feasibility studies in breast cancer surgery at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital and prostate cancer at University College Hospital London.
As the first approved medical device for intra-operative molecular imaging in the world, LightPath accurately images numerous cancer types in real time and at a scale that can fit within an operating room.
The LightPath Imaging System is designed to help surgeons ensure they have removed all cancerous tissue in a single operation. In addition to breast cancer surgery, the technology has potential application in a wide range of major cancer types, including prostate and lung cancer.
Speaking about the Horizon 2020 funding award, Lightpoint Medical CEO David Tuch said: "We are deeply grateful to the Horizon 2020 program for supporting a large-scale international clinical trial of the LightPath technology.
"This award will help demonstrate the power of image-guided surgery to improve breast cancer surgery, and reduce the number of patients having to undergo repeat operations."