Biocompatible strain sensors for continuous monitoring of tumor progression during immunotherapy treatments

项目摘要/摘要： 检查点抑制疗法提供了治疗几种以前难以治愈的肿瘤类型的能力；然而， 只有一小部分有资格接受药物治疗的患者反应良好。目前正在接受这些治疗的患者 治疗必须经历一系列昂贵的成像会议，以确定他们的肿瘤对 药物治疗，然而成像只能提供疾病的静态图像。医疗保健专业人员通常要等上几个月 在订购成像疗程之前，以确保发生有意义的肿瘤生长或衰退 根据iRECIST标准。这项拟议研究的目标是开发一种植入式应变传感器。 在整个治疗过程中持续监测肿瘤大小，为临床医生和癌症研究人员提供 监测肿瘤动力学的能力。我们计划用一种药物组合来治疗乳腺癌的小鼠模型 免疫治疗，并使用我们的传感器持续检测肿瘤大小的微小变化。到时候我们会的 在数据中寻找可能提供积极反应线索的趋势，特别是在之后的前48小时内 当已知免疫细胞渗入肿瘤并导致肿瘤暂时扩张时进行治疗。我们希望 这项新技术将被用作临床医生更准确地确定最佳服用时间的一种方法 后续的CT扫描，我们也相信这项技术可以用来研究 分子信号与肿瘤进展。然而，为了研制这种类型的传感器，我们必须克服 两个基本的设计限制：与电力存储和无线数据传输相关的大尺寸； 以及传感器生长和适应快速扩张组织的能力。拟议研究的一部分是 开发一种平台技术，通过身体传导传输电力和传感器读数，从而 消除了对电池和遥测系统的需求，并显著缩小了设备尺寸。我们还计划 利用本实验室开发的柔性可伸缩电子材料，设计一种可扩展的装置 而不会施加任何可能损害周围组织的力量。我们相信这些都是 除了测量肿瘤大小外，技术还可以用于各种目的，并能够 植入式生物医学传感器在临床上的广泛常规应用。

Project Summary/Abstract: Checkpoint inhibitor therapies provide the ability to treat several previously intractable tumor types; however, only a fraction of patients eligible for the medications respond favorably. Currently patients receiving these treatments must undergo a series of costly imaging sessions to determine their tumor’s response to the medication, yet imaging only provides a static picture of the disease. Health care professionals often wait months before ordering imaging sessions in order to ensure that meaningful tumor growth or recession has occurred according to the iRECIST criteria. The goal of this proposed research is to develop an implantable strain sensor to continuously monitor tumor size throughout the treatment and provide clinicians and cancer researchers with the ability to monitor tumor kinetics. We plan to treat a mouse model for mammary cancer with a combination immunotherapy treatment and use our sensor to continuously detect minute changes in tumor size. We will then look for trends in the data that may provide clues of a positive response, especially within the first 48 hours after treatment when immune cells are known to infiltrate the tumor and cause it to temporarily expand. We hope that this new technology will be used as a method for clinicians to more accurately determine the best time to take a follow up CT scan, and we also believe that this technology could be used to study the relationship between molecular signals and tumor progression. However, in order to develop this type of sensor, we must overcome two fundamental design constraints: the large size associated with power storage and wireless data transfer; and the ability for a sensor to grow and conform to rapidly expanding tissue. Part of the proposed research is to develop a platform technology for transferring power and sensor readings conductively through the body, thereby eliminating the need for a battery and telemetry system and shrinking the device size significantly. We also plan to utilize flexible and stretchable electronic materials developed in our lab to design a device which can expand alongside tissue without exerting any force that could damage the surrounding tissue. We believe that these technologies could be used for a variety of purposes in addition to measuring tumor size and could enable to widespread routine clinical use of implantable biomedical sensors.