The maker of a diagnostic device capable of detecting ovarian cancer cells in less than an hour yesterday received a three-year NT$2 billion (US$64.34 million) order from Lihpao Life Science.
The technology was developed by CytoAurora BioTechnologies, in collaboration with the National Applied Research Laboratories’ (NARL) Instrument Technology Research Center and YoungTek Electronics.
In less than two years, researchers completed preliminary assessments at Taipei-based Taiwan Adventist Hospital and Changhua Christian Hospital in Changhua using more than 600 cancer cell samples, the NARL said.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
The effectiveness of their tests attracted the attention of Lihpao Life Science, which develops new drugs and stem cell therapies, it said.
In the past several years, ovarian cancer screening has primarily involved detection technologies for circulating tumor cells (CTCs), the NARL said.
As tumors grow, some cells are shed from the primary tumor, entering the blood or lymphatic systems and circulating to other parts of the body, resulting in more tumors, it said.
The more CTCs there are, the more invasive the cancer cells are, the NARL said, adding that looking for CTCs in red blood cells is “as difficult as looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Of the 4 billion cells contained in 1ml of blood, only about three cells will be CTCs, CytoAurora BioTechnologies CEO Huang Chung-er (黃忠諤) said.
The new device is capable of capturing those CTCs within 30 to 60 minutes after blood is drawn, he said.
While other devices typically look for cancer cell metabolites, the new device directly “catches” the cancer cells themselves, Huang said, adding that the key to the technology is a chip the group developed that incorporates artificial intelligence technology.
The cell detection technology was 100 percent developed domestically with help from National Chiao Tung University, which inspired the project; the ITRC, which provided guidance during the research and development phase, and helped make the chip; and YoungTek Electronics, which helped assemble the chip, he said.
The ITRC’s one-stop medical device accelerator also provided important assistance by helping CytoAurora BioTechnologies overcome the “Death Valley” start-ups face from conception to commercialization, Huang said.
The accelerator also facilitated the company’s partnership with the two hospitals, enabling it to obtain 600 cancer cell samples within two years, which it used to confirm the product’s effectiveness, he said.
About half of ovarian cancer patients are already in the final stages of the disease when they are diagnosed, Taiwan Adventist Hospital vice president Jou Hei-jen (周輝政) said.
CTCs are difficult to detect, but the new device does so by using the unique characteristics of ovarian cancer, “like using facial recognition [technology] to find the right person,” Jou said.
CTC screening could be used in preoperative evaluations, to monitor residual tumors and to detect relaps esearly, he said.
As the technology is capable of capturing entire cancer cells, it also allows for later single-cell analysis, he added.
Lihpao Life Science decided to use CytoAurora BioTechnologies’s diagnostic device to track and monitor the efficacy of new drugs it is developing, general manager Wu Hung-tai (吳泓泰) said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching