The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), under the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has announced awards for eight teams to develop new technologies for precise removal of cancerous tumours.
These teams, selected under ARPA-H’s Precision Surgical Interventions (PSI) programme, are set to receive a total commitment of up to $150m for developing the technologies.
The initiative could lead to a significant reduction in repeat procedures.
ARPA-H's selected awardees are tasked with creating methods to improve cancer detection and make critical anatomical structures more visible during surgeries.
The PSI programme will focus on cancer localisation (technical areas 1-A and 1-B) and healthy structure localisation (technical area 2).
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said: “Revolutionising surgical techniques is a critical step forward towards improving detection and treatment of cancer, and improving the overall patient experience in the process.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to reducing the cancer death rate by at least 50% over the next 25 years.”
Technical area 1-A will concentrate on visualising tumour surfaces and detecting residual cancer cells, allowing for additional tissue removal before surgery completion.
Tulane University has been awarded up to $22.9m to develop a structured illumination microscopy system and an AI algorithm for automatic cancer cell identification.
With an award of up to $18m, Rice University will create a new microscope using ultraviolet epifluorescence and automated AI algorithms for image classification.
The University of Washington, receiving up to $21.1m, aims to develop a lightsheet scanner for tumour imaging and algorithms for pseudo-staining images to aid in classification.
For technical area 1-B, the focus is on identifying microscopic cancer remnants within the patient.
With funding up to $15.1m, the University of California, San Francisco is inventing a multicolor microscope array and a multi-cancer dyeing agent.
Additionally, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, awarded up to $32.6m, will develop optical coherence tomography and nonlinear optics for tissue structure imaging.
Johns Hopkins University, with a total award of up to $20.9m, is developing a photoacoustic endoscope and a multi-cancer fluorescent contrast agent.
In technical area 2, Dartmouth College, granted up to $31.3m, is creating an imaging solution integrated with a laparoscope, using various dyes to visualise critical anatomical structures.
Johns Hopkins University is also working on visualising these structures using existing fluorescent dyes and their photoacoustic endoscope.
Lastly, Cision Vision received an award of up to $22.3m to employ shortwave infrared and hyperspectral imaging enhanced by AI algorithms to differentiate tissue types without dyes.
