Early detection of treatment response in breast cancer

ongoing

Breast cancer is the prominent cancer among women globally, with over 2 million women diagnosed annually. Even though early detection and advancements in treatment have led to improved outcomes and survival rates, still, 685,000 women died in 2020. It is thus fundamental to select the best treatment for the individual patient (precision medicine) to improve outcome and reduce side effects (personalized healthcare). The challenge is that predicting how well a patient responds to the therapy takes many months and is uncertain. With this trial-and-error approach, patients can be subjected to treatments that have no or very little effect and suffer from side effects. Importantly, precious time can be lost in finding the right treatment. The proposed solution is Hyperpolarized Magnetic Resonance (HypMR) imaging that may be able to detect non-responders to chemotherapy after the first treatments, much earlier than the current 3-4 months of a full treatment cycle. Thus, it may allow clinicians to adjust the therapy to the individual patient to improve the outcome significantly. HypMR is a novel molecular imaging modality that promises to revolutionize diagnostic radiology with a much wider perspective. The project team comprises world-leading academic, public, and industrial partners in the field of HypMR that will conduct the necessary R&D towards multicenter clinical studies and commercialization of the technique, starting with breast cancer as the first use case. RESPONSE will have significant impacts for the SME Polarize. It will represent a major milestone to raise capital and investments needed for the final steps to market (clinical studies). Commercialization of the clinical polarizer and consumables, incl. the contrast agent, is expected to generate cumulative revenues of more than 250M€, 5 years post-market entry. The societal cost savings on treatments, hospitalization and quality-of-life far outweigh the cost of the diagnostic test.