Plasma-Treated Hydrogel Compositions and Uses Thereof

The Challenge

Primary bone cancer is a rare disease that arises mainly in children and young adolescents, and despite the current therapies, mortality rate is still around 50%. Secondary, metastatic bone cancers, usually incurable, also has devastating clinical manifestations. Current therapy usually includes tumor resection followed by chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. This means that most patients that undergo limb-sparing surgery need reconstructive surgery to regain limb function. Moreover, chemotherapeutic drugs have severe associated side effects, risks and limitations of current treatment options highlight a significant unmet need. 

The Technology

Cold plasma is a particular state of a gas that contains a vast number of reactive species which have shown to selectively kill cancer cells without damaging the surrounding tissues. Their action is based on the generation of reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen species (RNS) which has shown anticancer efficacy in vitro and in vivo on a variety of cancer types (melanoma, cervical cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, breast carcinoma, colon cancer, etc.

Our technology puts together for the first time bone regeneration biomaterials with cold atmospheric plasma-treated hydrogels as an innovative therapy for cancer that up to now has shown no secondary effects

Innovative advantages

• Absence of side effects in the treatment of cancer with an injectable therapy that can be applied locally without the need of surgery.
• Possibility of simultaneously treating bone cancer cells without impairing bone growth, and providing a support for bone regeneration.

Current stage of development

The Technology has been validated in vitro in the laboratory, and its safety has been demonstrated already in vivo, and is currently in TRL3.

Applications and Target Market

The invention is applicable for bone cancers, to treat cancer with a therapy that displays no side effects and allows to regenerate the resected bone. 

Moreover, the Technology can be applied to other types of cancers, as the plasma-treated hydrogel compositions can be injected in non-resectable tumours without the need of surgery, or can be used as complementary therapy following the resection of any tumour, to treat the area with the anti-cancer therapy allowing more conservative surgeries.