Products for detection and decontamination of cytotoxic agents

加拿大医院每天都制备和使用细胞毒性药物，主要用于治疗各种癌症。根据不列颠哥伦比亚省癌症机构报告的最新数据，2007/2008年有31，515次化疗就诊。虽然这些药物的治疗益处是无可争议的，但这些药物不加选择地杀死细胞;由于其作为DNA烷化剂的作用机制，许多药物具有固有的致突变性和/或致癌性。因此，在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，其目的是净化表面的普通清洁剂充其量是无效的，并且实际上可能通过将药物扩散到其他表面或通过将药物分解成更具毒性的试剂而加剧问题。Nanozen（与我们合作的一家当地公司）开发了一种简单、具有成本效益的专有解决方案，可从受污染的表面去除>99.99%的测试药物残留。该解决方案有效地溶解污染物，使他们能够被吸收到一个“擦拭”介质，可以安全地处置。医院的另一个关键需求是检测空气传播和表面细胞毒性药物的能力，以确保它们从工作场所正确和完全清除。不幸的是，迄今为止，还没有制定标准协议来衡量卫生保健工作者的暴露量。通过NSERC Engage计划，我们与Nanozen合作开发了用于检测烷化剂的传感器。该市场评估的目标是确定医院管理者和政府监管者最期望的前述选项中的哪一个：（1）单独的清洁溶液，（2）包含清洁溶液的预成型擦拭物（原则上类似于婴儿擦拭物），（3）包含清洁溶液和传感器的擦拭物，（4）传感器的其他配方（例如，徽章，用于检测空气中颗粒物的装置），（5）开发溢出工具包。

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.