The Program For Cancer Detection, Diagnosis, And Treatment Technologies For Global Health: Translating Affordable Point-Of-Care Technologies To Less-Resourced Settings
Michael GWEDE, National Institutes of Health, United States
PAI V. 2
,
BAKER H. 1
,
DIVI R. 1
,
TANDON P. 1
,
LASH T. 2
,
AGRAWAL L. 1
,
OSSANDON M. 1
,
PEARLMAN P. 1
1 National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States
2 National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health,
Cancer kills more people worldwide than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, with low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) largely bearing this burden. While success in detection, diagnosis and treatment has been reported in LMICs through the use of low-cost point-of-care (POC) technologies, these technologies have been largely overlooked by industry and venture capital, as low-cost solutions offer less incentive for investment. The program presented here funds multidisciplinary teams to adapt and validate technologies for cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment in low-resource settings, providing these technologies a pathway to market.
Each project consists of an adaptation phase (2 years: $500k total costs/year) and validation phase (3 years: $1M total costs/year). Projects are selected through NIH peer review process by a carefully-selected special emphasis panel. Projects are competitively vetted for validation phase funding based on completion of adaptation phase milestones.
The program currently supports seven technologies for cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment. For oral cancer, the program supports a LED-based photodynamic therapy device with similar in vivo and ex vivo efficacy as existing laser phototherapy. For cervical cancer detection, an automated high-resolution microendoscope is supported, displaying a 90%+ histological concordance in detecting CIN3. Two cervical cancer cryotherapy projects are funded: a cryopen which achieves ~4.0 mm depth of necrosis (>90% of disease), and a cryopop device that consumes >10% theCO2 consumed by commercial devices, while exhibiting comparable efficacy in ballistic gel studies. The program also supports POC tests for HPV and Hepatitis C viral antigen level/viral load detection, and a breast cancer triaging device/algorithm with 95% sensitivity and a 40% false positive reduction rate of.
The program is adding eight projects this year, and by year seven of the program, at least nine projects will have progressed through optimization, clinical validation, and business planning for commercialization, uniquely accelerating these technologies for successful clinical translation.