Early-stage medtech companies Quantason, CivaTech Oncology, Navigation Sciences, MagForce and ChemoTech are going after Cancer in big ways.  

Identifying cancer and treating it in its earliest stages is one of the greatest challenges facing our healthcare system. Early detection and treatment of cancer is linked to the best clinical outcomes in terms of overall survival and treatment success. To that end, many pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and medical device developers are committed to addressing the global burden of cancer. Recent statistics from the International Agency for Research on Cancer estimated that there 17 million incident cases of cancer and 9.5 million deaths attributable to cancer globally in 2018. Global forecasts suggest that the burden of cancer will only grow despite current efforts to address the disease. There is still much work to be done if we are to successfully “beat cancer”. While pharmaceuticals, or chemotherapy, often come to mind when people think of how cancer is treated, the reality is that cancer treatment is a complex process that integrates multiple diagnostics and therapeutic options.

In February 2020, 100 venture funded medtech startups will gather at the Emerging Medtech Summit to share their investment and strategic partnering needs with an audience of active investors and strategic buyers (companies like Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Abbott, and many others).  Several companies that will be presenting are developing next-generation solutions for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Early stage medtech companies that are pioneering solutions to cancer are listed below. 

Quantason has developed Image-based Dynamic Ultrasound Spectrography (IDUS^TM), the groundbreaking medtech platform for radiation-free, proactive, early and preventive breast screening with no limiting factors such age, breast density, size, pregnancy or radiation therapy.

CivaTech Oncology is developing solutions that give radiation oncologists access to customizable, targeted therapy for the treatment of their patients. The company’s unique, low dose brachytherapy sources, CivaSheet and CivaString, reduce procedural complexity and give oncologists much needed flexibility in selecting radiation doses.

Unless it is caught in its earliest stages, lung cancer is one of the most aggressive and difficult forms of cancer to treat. Navigation Sciences is developing Image-guided Video Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery(iVATS) technology capable of identifying and removing lung tumors and other soft tissue cancers that combines augmented reality with minimally invasive instruments to increase operating room efficiency and reduce reoperation and recurrence rates.

MagForce’s NanoTherm is pioneering nanotechnology-based therapies for the treatment of brain tumors and other cancers. The procedure involves the injection of magnetic nanoparticles at the site of the tumor or a nearby cavity wall that are then heated with a magnetic field to weaken or outright destroy cancer cells without damaging surrounding healthy tissue. 

Developing a new take on chemotherapy, ChemoTech utilizes electroporation (short electric pulses that generate pores in cellular membranes) to deliver chemotherapeutic drugs through the cell membrane of cancer cells. IQwave is a next-generation electrochemotherapeutic device for the treatment of different types of tumors that initiates rapid necrosis in tumors that are hard to reach using conventional electrochemotherapy.

Come learn more about the ongoing technological advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer from these companies, and many other lifescience innovators at the Emerging Medtech Summit.