Development of microfluidic device for malignant mesothelioma studies
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of microfluidic device for response to chemotherapy in malignant mesothelioma
IRAS ID
137026
Contact name
John Greenman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Hull and East Yorkshire NHS R&D
Research summary
Currently, the majority of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) patients present late and have inoperable tumours. This means that treatment is largely palliative in nature and relies principally on chemotherapy. However the drugs themselves have significant side-effects and often possess little, if any, clinical benefit. What is urgently required is a method for determining, on an individual basis, whether a patient’s MPM will respond to the drugs available, bearing in mind other factors such as a patient’s age and general health. If no treatments were shown to be effective, patients could be counselled appropriately, and be offered the best palliative care possible, thus avoiding un-necessary treatment side-effects.
This project is aimed at demonstrating proof of concept of a personalised-medicine approach using a unique tissue biopsy-based technique involving maintenance of viable tissue samples in bespoke microfluidic devices (commonly termed Lab on a chip). The project will build on the group’s extensive expertise in analysing tissue responses on chip. Having optimised the key factors associated with NSCLC it is anticipated that at least 30 samples will be collected and assessed in microfluidics device over the 21 month recruitment phase. The laboratory results will be correlated against clinical outcome (following a minimum 9 month follow-up period) to assess the level of accuracy of the microfluidic-generated data.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/YH/0369
Date of REC Opinion
6 Dec 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion