Background

There are approximately 300,000 new diagnoses of cancer in the UK each year. Radiotherapy is an important form of treatment for both local and regional disease with ~50% of cancer patients receiving radiotherapy at some stage during treatment, either as monotherapy or in combination with surgery, chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy.

However, about 15-20% (~30,000) of all radiotherapy patients experience some level of adverse side effects which remains a limiting factor in the treatment of cancer. A minority of patients experience unexpectedly severe tissue toxicity after radiotherapy and such patients are called ‘over-reactors’ in which case radiotherapy is potentially life-threatening.

Technology Overview

Brunel has developed a rapid and reliable diagnostic test to predict side effects in radiotherapy patients. The assay measures DNA damage and repair in blood lymphocytes from cancer patients exposed to gamma radiation.

Benefits

Identify patients who demonstrate a potentially highly adverse reaction to radiotherapy, possibly a fatal reaction, in order that they can explore other treatment alternatives.

Applications

There is significant published data which indicates that patients with defective or reduced DNA repair capacity are at risk of dramatic side effects after radiotherapy (RT). For decades, clinical and experimental oncologists have sought a reliable and predictive test for RT responses. A number of candidate tests have been proposed but are complex and difficult to carry out. However, with the greater understanding of the mechanisms of DNA repair pathways, novel biomarkers have been identified which lend themselves to reliable and simple diagnostic procedures.

A recent development of the diagnostic is the use of imaging flow cytometry. This highly novel technique captures images of every cell in flow which will enable a greater level of test sensitivity.

Opportunity

Brunel is seeking development partners to bring the idea to market.

Diagnostic Test for Highly Adverse Reactions to Radiotherapy

Patents

IP Status

Seeking