A refreshing reminder in the importance of technology, innovation and hard work..
A tumour monorail’ that lures cancer cells away from the brain has been put on the fast track for human testing.
Tumour cells spread through the brain along fibres of white matter. However, the monorail works by providing them with an alternative pathway, it effectively lures cancerous cells out of the brain thereby preventing their spread into areas of brain tissue.
The device certainly looks promising, preliminary trials on rats showed that the monorail is capable of reducing the size of tumours by more than 90%.
Around 5,000 UK citizens die every year from brain tumours, in the US the number is around 16,000.
While survival rates have been improving this technology has the potential to really do some good and save lives.
The device itself is a long, thin tube made of thin flexible fibres; it is fed through a narrow opening connecting the brain’s left and right hemispheres…(sounds unpleasant right).
In more technical terms the device works by engineering the migration of a tumour inside the body. The devices polymer fibre structures mimic the white matter of the nerves present in the brain with the intention that the tumour progresses down these fibres away from the brain tissue. The tumour cells are guided into a tiny reservoir that sits on the top of the skull beneath the sculp, siphoning them out after collection could prevent the spread of the tumour or shrink it.
Furthermore, although the monorail has been specifically designed to mimic white matter to treat brain tumours, researchers believe it could help treat other types of cancer as many respond to the same cue. For example, it could be particularly effective for treating tumours in parts of the body which are hard to reach — moving them to a more accessible location where they can be surgically removed.
At The Futurist we spend a lot of time thinking about the economic, social and political implications of technology. There is no doubt that this is important; however, it is always refreshing to see technology being used in such an inspiring manner.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the team at Georgia Institute of Technology who spent 5 years working on this biomedical device.
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