Products for detection and decontamination of cytotoxic agents

加拿大各医院每天都在制备和施用细胞毒性药物，主要用于治疗各种类型的癌症。根据不列颠哥伦比亚省癌症机构报告的最新数据，2007/2008年共有31,515例化疗就诊。虽然这些药物的治疗效果是无可争辩的，但这些药物会不加选择地杀死细胞；由于它们作为DNA烷基化剂的作用机制，许多具有固有的诱变性和/或致癌性。因此，工作场所长期接触这些药物是卫生行业的一个主要问题。一个重要的因素是，普通的清洁剂，其目的是消除表面的污染，充其量是无效的，实际上可能会加剧问题，通过扩散药物到其他表面或分解药物成更有毒的物质。Nanozen（与我们合作的一家当地公司）开发了一种简单、经济有效的专有解决方案，可以从污染表面去除99.99%的被测药物残留。该溶液有效地溶解了污染物，使它们被吸收到可以安全处理的“擦拭”介质上。医院的另一项关键需求是能够检测空气传播和表面细胞毒性药物，以确保其适当和完全从工作场所清除。不幸的是，到目前为止，还没有制定出衡量卫生保健工作者接触量的标准方案。通过NSERC参与计划，我们与Nanozen合作开发了用于检测烷基化剂的传感器。本市场评估的目标是确定医院管理人员和政府监管机构最希望采用的上述选择之一：(1)单独使用清洁溶液，(2)含有清洁溶液的预成型湿巾（原则上类似于婴儿湿巾），(3)同时含有清洁溶液和传感器的湿巾，(4)传感器的其他配方（例如，徽章，检测空气中颗粒物的装置），(5)泄漏套件的开发。

Cytotoxic drugs are prepared and administered on a daily basis in Canadian hospitals, primarily for the treatment of various cancer types. According to the latest figures reported by the British Columbia Cancer Agency, there were 31,515 chemotherapy visits in 2007/2008. Although the therapeutic benefits of these drugs are indisputable, these drugs indiscriminately kill cells; many are inherently mutagenic and/or carcinogenic due to their mechanism of action as DNA alkylating agents. As such, chronic workplace exposure to these drugs is a major problem in the health industry. A significant factor is that common cleaning agents whose purpose is to decontaminate surfaces are ineffective at best and may actually exacerbate the problem, either by spreading the drugs to other surfaces or by decomposing the drugs into more toxic agents. Nanozen (a local company with whom we collaborate) has developed a simple, cost effective proprietary solution that removes >99.99% of tested drug residues from contaminated surfaces. The solutions effectively solubilizes contaminants, allowing them to be absorbed onto a "wipe" media that can be safely disposed. An additional critical need in hospitals is the ability to detect airborne and surface cytotoxic drugs to ensure their proper and complete removal from the workplace. Unfortunately, to date, no standard protocol has been developed measure the amount of exposure for health care workers. Through the NSERC Engage program, we have developed sensors for the detection of alkylating agents in collaboration with Nanozen. The goal of this market assessment is to determine which of the previous described options would be most desirable to hospital administrators and government regulators: (1) cleaning solution alone, (2) pre-formed wipes containing the cleaning solution (similar in principle to baby wipes), (3) wipes containing both the cleaning solution and sensor, (4) other formulations of the sensor (e.g., badge, device for detection of airborne particulates), (5) development of spill kits.