Hospital trials for wearable skin cancer treatment

Sara Ver-Bruggen - 15 Mar 2010

Ambicare Health, which is developing a new wearable light plaster for treating types of skin cancer, is expanding closed market trials for its technology.

The trials are taking place within hospitals and clinics in the UK, Germany, France and Italy. The expanded trials will gather more data relating to pain as part of the treatment. Compared with traditional photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatments for non-melanoma skin cancer, Ambicare Health's technology is less painful to administer, patients have reported.

In typical PDT treatments a pharmaceutical is applied to the lesion, which must be exposed to an intense dose of light in order to activate the cream. This is usually applied by a static lamp at a hospital or skin clinic.

Light treatment

Ambicare Health's technology allows the patient to wear a light plaster over the lesion, once the cream has been applied. The plaster is worn for longer, compared to the static lamp, but because the exposure is to a lower intensity light there is less pain for the patient. The patient can also go home to administer the treatment, making the process more comfortable and less stressful.

In the UK alone, on average 100,000 cases of skin cancer are diagnosed each year. If ambulatory treatments such as Ambicare Health's become widely used to treat a percentage of these cases, hospitals and clinics will save costs by freeing up beds and cubicles.

On 12 March, the Ambicare Health Ambulight was officially unveiled at the European Society for Photodynamic Therapy, allowing many consultant dermatologists and practitioners to see for the device for the first time.

The light plaster uses LEDs and is developed to work with existing PDT creams. As the trials expand over the course of this year and the company increases production, development of the device will continue.

Says Ian Muirhead, Ambicare Health's CEO: 'This is a first generation product. We are looking at a broad range of alternative lighting technologies.

OLEDs

' Some of these are based on OLEDs', says Muirhead but declines to discuss them in further detail. He says second generation devices based on other lighting sources could be ready by 2011.

As well as the non-melanoma skin cancer treatment, Muirhead says the company is working on a product for acne. This application would require no cream - light itself would be the treatment. Trials are just about to start and, if they are successful, the company could eventually supply millions of units annually for such an application.