Almost $3M granted for Lightpoint intraoperative imaging clinical trials

A grant amounting to $2.8 million has been awarded to Lightpoint Medical and surgical partners of the company headquartered in Rickmansworth, England, to bolster clinical trials for intraoperative imaging systems for prostate and breast cancer.

The monies are being presented by the Technology Strategy Board, a United Kingdom-based funding agency that focuses on technological innovations, Lightpoint announced March 10. The company was chosen from a pool in the Photonics for Healthcare and Stratified Medicine competitions put on by the board.  

The technology being funding is a Cerenkov luminescence imaging specimen analyzer. The intraoperative molecular imaging system is able to identify cancerous tissues of the breast, prostate and affected lymph nodes during surgery and uses technologies that have already acquired regulatory approval.

“Breast and prostate cancers are two of the most common cancers worldwide. Unfortunately, surgery often fails to identify and remove all of the cancerous tissue,” remarked David Tuch, PhD, CEO of Lightpoint Medical, in a statement. “These clinical trials are an important step in demonstrating that intraoperative molecular imaging can increase the success rate of cancer surgery, reduce re-operations, and improve patient outcomes. We are deeply grateful for the financial support from the Technology Strategy Board for these important clinical trials."

Collaboration in these clinical trials has already been announced and involves King's College London, University College Hospital, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and University College London.

"There is a pressing medical need for improved tools to detect cancer in real time during cancer surgery,” commented Arnie Purushotham, MD, a professor specializing in breast cancer at King's College London and a surgeon at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. “Current methods based on histopathology take time to inform immediate surgical decision-making. If proven clinically, Lightpoint's intraoperative technology has the potential to reduce the rate of cancer re-operation and provide a ground-breaking tool for cancer surgery."

The Technology Strategy Board is sponsored by the United Kingdom’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). Lightpoint’s technology is still in its very early stages and will have to proceed through subsequent stages of clinical studies before it can change current standards of care for surgical oncology.