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Few treatment regimens shock a patient’s immune system quite like chemotherapy. The conventional cancer therapy is known to rampage through the body, destroying healthy and diseased tissue alike.  Patients may experience everything from weakness and nausea to organ toxicity. The side effects of chemotherapy can be uncomfortable at best, and deadly at worst. 

There is a growing demand for focal cancer therapies that destroy tumors while preserving healthy tissue. One company working in this space, NuVue Therapeutics, is developing a site-specific regimen of cancer therapy for soft tissue tumors. The Fairfax, Virginia-based biotech discussed its image-guided fluid delivery devices and drug delivery systems this week at the OneMedForum in San Francisco. The NuVue platform is comprised of three proprietary technologies:

• Enhanced visualization systems to make minimally invasive medical instruments show up more clearly on ultrasound during medical procedures. The technology is meant to allow for greater accuracy and ease of use during the real-time guidance and positioning of instruments.
• Advanced microencapsulation technology.  Originally developed by NASA to preserve drugs during space flight, this technology is used to create miniaturized capsules to deliver diagnostic markers and anti-cancer drugs to targeted sites in the body.
• Cryotherapeutic technology, which involves cooling the tissues for treatment.

The NuVue CryoChemoAblation System combines all three technology platforms for the treatment of soft tissue cancers such as breast, pancreatic, ovarian and prostate cancer. A device delivers cooling agents to a specially designed “cryoprobe,” which administers microencapsulated chemotherapy drugs to the patient.

NuVue currently owns 20 patents and has applied for 5 more.  The company has also licensed an additional 12 patents from NASA. NuVue’s products address a potential U.S. market of $18.2 billion and a global market estimated at $40 billion.