Handheld device makes cancer monitoring less invasive

Two Pore Guys (2PG) have announced a collaboration with oncologists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to evaluate its handheld nanopore-based platform capable of detecting cell-free circulating tumor DNA from liquid biopsies.

“2PG’s platform is ideal for applications like liquid biopsy, because it is portable, simple and inexpensive enough to be used by anyone, anywhere,” said Dan Heller, the company’s CEO.

The handheld devices are battery powered and come with disposable test stripes that contain reagents and solid-state nanopore ships to detect individual molecules. Even though liquid biopsies are currently being used to aid in the treatment of metastatic lung cancer, they have also become a way to monitor other types of cancer.

“Cancer recurrence is a constant battle, and treatment is a race against time,” said Andrew Ko, MD, a professor at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. “The sooner we can detect a recurrence, the sooner we can change or augment a patient’s therapy and improve his or her chances of survival.”

“We have high hopes for liquid biopsy as an important tool in the future of cancer treatment,” he added. “The ability to accurately monitor mutations using a simple and inexpensive device could improve the quality of care we can provide while significantly reducing healthcare costs, for example, by more quickly moving patients off expensive drugs that are no longer effective.”

A study is set to focus on the detection of the KRAS G12D mutation in ctDNAs from patient blood and urine. If successful, the device would be a new way of monitoring patients for cancer recurrence from their own homes.