UWindsor researchers working to develop device to detect, treat brain cancer

Researchers at the University of Windsor are working to develop a device that would be able to detect and treat brain cancer.

Lead researcher Simon Rondeau-Gagné said the goal is to create degradable electronic sensors that could be implanted into the brain of patients suffering from brain cancer.

"The technology is basically a tiny sensor made out of different materials that we install onto … a special plastic [containing drugs]," Rondeau-Gagné told CBC News.

"The sensor will be implanted in the brain and as soon as there will be a molecule associated to brain cancer, it will trigger the sensor … and then it will trigger the degradation of the plastic … and use the drugs and hopefully treat the cancer."

The team said this is a" groundbreaking drug delivery method," and they will test it using 3D bio-printed brain models with cancer cells, in collaboration with UWindsor professor John Trant and a team from the University of Victoria.

In addition to Rondeau-Gagné, the team includes Trant from UWindsor's Department of Chemistry, Jennifer Voth from Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and the department of kinesiology, and Konrad Walus from the University of British Columbia's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

$250K grant

The research team has received a two-year, $250,000 grant from the Tri-Agency New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) exploration program for their project — Implantable Electronics and E-Theranostics: A Paradigm Shift in Brain Cancer Management.

Rondeau-Gagné said the technology is "game changing," noting that while there are other implants on the market that patients can use,  "they are filled up with drugs, are generally big [and] bulky and they create a lot of side effects." 

"We think that if you combine the treatment with the chemistry of the plastics, [it makes] it more easy for the body to assimilate it," Rondeau-Gagné said.

"If you combine it with a drug discovery and the fact that you're going to detect as the brain cancer will relapse, really you're having now a completely different set of tools. You can detect and treat at the same time as actually controlling and monitoring the progress of the cancer."

The Canadian Cancer Society estimates that this year, 3,300 people in Canada will be diagnosed with brain and spinal cord cancer, and 2,600 will die.

Just 22 per cent of people diagnosed with brain and central nervous system tumours survive at least five years, the organization says.