A team of researchers led by Rice University (Houston,TX,USA;www.rice.edu) has been awarded a USD 45 million grant by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to speedup the development of a sense-and-respond implant technology that could reduce cancer-related fatalities in the U.S. by over half.

The new miniature implant capable of continuously monitoring a patient's cancer and adjusting their immunotherapy dose in real time could become a game-chanaer. This device could supply real-time data from the tumor site.which could then be used to tailor more effective, tumor-specific therapies. 

The grant is set to fast-track the development and testing of this novel approach, focusing on significantly enhancing immunotherapy results in patients suffering from hard-to-treat cancers such as ovarian and pancreatic types.

image:The soft,wireless implant monitors the heart without requiring removal (Photo courtesy of Northwestern University)