Cancer Research - Europa

POC4life
Multiparametric quantum dot bioassay
for point of care diagnosis
Summary
This project aims at improving the healthcare of patients
by elaborating a unique POC diagnosis platform which will
help specialists to deliver an earlier diagnosis and to
decide for appropriate treatment. The goal is to provide
the clinicians with multiparametric measurement of the
main 4/5 essential markers and to support decision with
a software tool. This will be a cost-eff ective breakthrough
in the diagnosis market.
Problem
Keywords | Lung cancer | point of care | quantum dots | UV light source | fl ash lamp | fl uorescence | immuno-diagnosis |
multiparameter | blood separation | expert system | molecule coupling | luminescent tags |
Each year 377 000 new European citizens develop lung
cancer and 340 000 die from it. Studies show that early
diagnosis and accurate cancer typing could save number of
lives. Laboratories nowadays have a wide panel of reproducible
diagnostic tests at their disposal: these are mostly
routine tests realised in centralized laboratories. The needs
for early diagnosis, multiparametric analysis of results and
quick monitoring of disease progression or therapeutic sensitivity
were progressively left aside, whereas they could be
fulfi lled with using decentralised diagnostic tools, close to
the patient.
Among the possible applications of this new concept, the
partners have chosen to work on the primary diagnosis of
the histological types of lung cancer to help to give an
improved initial diagnosis and to eliminate the 15-20 % problematic
or late diagnosed cases. The study will pay special
care to women (lung cancer death rates for women have
been still increasing in Europe since the 1990s and marker
patterns may be diff erent). It will then have a huge impact
on health by contributing to the fi ght against cancer and the
development of gender dimension in research. For this purpose,
the multidisciplinary project will involve academic
researchers (from Germany, Spain and France) and SMEs
(from Sweden and the UK) gathering around the initiators
of the project (the SME CEZANNE, the University of
Strasbourg in France and the University of Potsdam in
Germany) which have the skills to build a multiparametric
device, to develop immunoassays and to design an interpretation
software.
Aim
Objective 1: Elaborate an innovative medical device: a unique
point of care diagnosis platform which will help specialists
to make earlier diagnosis and provide more appropriate
treatments.
Objective 2: Provide the best possible integration of parameters
by means of a consortium composed of public and private
partners such as research intensive SMEs and academic
entities Europe-wide.
Objective 3: Elaborate the new device for a specifi c application:
the primary diagnosis of the diff erent types of lung
cancer. The project will then have a huge impact on health by
contributing to the fi ght against cancer and the development
of gender dimension in research.
The objective of the project is to generalize this approach to
combinations of immuno-assay measurements to deliver
a clear diagnosis of the disease or monitoring information.
The generalization means fi rst that the diagnosis should be
accessible to various types of medical practices (medical
doctor to hospitals) and thus a low cost , easy to use ‘Point
of Care’ (POC) device should be developed. However this
should not be done to the detriment of quality and precision.
A homogeneous technology known for high level precision
can therefore be a judicious choice. Generalization means
also that various pathologies could be addressed: typically
from 2 to 4 or 5 immuno-assays. We thus aim at allowing on
the POC device the simultaneous measurement of 4 to 5
immuno-assays with one draw of patient sample (1 droplet).
Finally generalization means universality of the measurement
technique and of the data reduction process. In this
way, fl uorescent measurement based on FRET (Fluorescence
Resonance Energy Transfer) seems an excellent choice, since
it may be extended in the future to other diagnostics such as
DNA analysis, coagulation, microbiology…
148 CANCER RESEARCH PROJECTS FUNDED UNDER THE SIXTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME