The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health or ARPA -H has awarded $45 million to help rapidly develop sense-and-respond implant technology that could cut cancer related death by up to 50%. The technology made by a group of multi-institutional researchers including Carnegie Mellon University will attempt to dramatically improve immunotherapy outcomes for patients with ovarian, pancreatic and other difficult-to-treat cancers. The team includes a variety of different professions such as engineers, physicians,multidisciplinary specialists in synthetic biology, materials science, immunology, oncology, electrical engineering, artificial intelligence and other fields spanning 20 different research labs. Bioengineer Tzahi Cohen-Karni said “With this project, our aim is to develop a minimally invasive procedure to deploy a smart device that will monitor the state of the cancer and adjust the immunotherapy accordingly. ”. Rice University bioengineer Omid Veiseh stated “The technology is broadly applicable for peritoneal cancers that affect the pancreas, liver, lungs and other organs,”.
The American Cancer Society shared “A little over 1.9 million new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in the US in 2023” these include non-life threatening and This estimate excludes basal cell and squamous cell skin cancers, which are not required to be reported to cancer registries. Most people will be affected by cancer whether it them or someone they know because The American Cancer Society wrote “In the US, an estimated 41 out of 100 men and 39 out of 100 women will develop cancer during their lifetime”. Cancer Related costs to patients are estimated at $21.1 billion, including $16.2 billion in total out-of-pocket costs and $4.9 billion in patient time costs (travel to/from treatment and waiting for and receiving care).
Issues.org believed ARPA-H will be a cheaper alternative saying “It is safe to assume that many of ARPA-H’s programs will be in technology supporting medical innovation: less-expensive ways to produce viral vectors for gene therapies, for example, or customized blood cells for personalized cancer medicines that could greatly slash manufacturing costs.”. ARPA-H could cut down both the number of lives lost and the money spent by the consumers. With the broad use of their technology cancer could be cured by boosting the body’s ability to fight the cancer harming it. ARPA-H is doing this with the use of immunotherapy which according to the Cancer Research institute allows the body to remember and train against cancer which offers the possibility for long term control of cancer.
