Lightpoint Medical receives R01 grant from US National Cancer Institute

Lightpoint Medical, an innovative medical device company specializing in imaging technologies announced today that it has received an R01 grant of $2.6M million from the US National Cancer Institute. The funding will support clinical trials of Lightpoint's EnLight™ molecular imaging technology in lymph node cancer and a range of gynecologic cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK).

"Lightpoint is honored to receive this grant," said Dr David Tuch, Lightpoint Founder and CEO. "We look forward to undertaking clinical trials to demonstrate the efficacy for EnLight™ for intraoperative cancer detection."

Lightpoint has developed a new approach to tissue diagnostics in oncology surgery, an area of medicine where patients can frequently require a repeat operation. The EnLight™ fiberscope system uses molecular imaging technology to reveal microscopic cancer deposits and promises to enable surgeons to identify cancerous tissue, thereby promoting conservative surgery with reduced risk of recurrence or re-operation. Lightpoint will collaborate with MSK's Drs Jan Grimm and Nadeem Abu-Rustum to carry out this important research.

"Cerenkov imaging utilizes the light emitted from radiotracers to provide surgeons a unique view of the operating field by making tumors readily visible", said Dr Grimm. "Lightpoint is developing some sophisticated imaging systems for this modality."