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We have a winner!

 

The Award of Excellence and Innovation in IR is sponsored by the R.W. Guenther Foundation, and seeks to reward and encourage exceptional research in the field of interventional radiology. The award is presented during the Opening and Awards Ceremony of the CIRSE Annual Meeting, bestowing recognition and a €5,000 prize to the best applicant.

 

This year, the award will go to the Leman Research Group from Lausanne, Switzerland, for their research on drug-eluting beads loaded with anti-angiogenic agents for chemoembolisation.

 

The winning team

 

The research was produced by the Leman Research Group, which consists of Prof. Alban Denys, head of the Digestive and Oncologic Imaging and Interventional Radiology Unit at the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV); Dr. Pierre Bize, senior physician, Department of Medical Imaging at CHUV; Prof. Gerrit Borchard, professor in biopharmaceutical sciences at the University of Geneva; Katrin Fuchs, licensed pharmacist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Geneva; and Dr. Olivier Jordan, senior lecturer at the University of Geneva.

 

The innovation

 

Transarterial chemoembolisation uses microspheres to both embolise the hepatic artery and block the tumour’s blood supply, and to serve as targeted anti-cancer or anti-angiogenic drug-carriers. Drug-eluting beads have become an accepted part of this procedure. However, challenges remain. The suitability of the main drug used for this therapy – Doxorubicin – has been questioned. In addition, the ischaemia induced by the embolisation also contributes to the development of new vessel sprouts near the tumour.

 

The Leman Research Group has paved the way for overcoming these hurdles by exploring the possibility of combining embolic beads with a multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor that inhibits tumour vessel growth instead of relying on standard doxorubicin-eluting beads.

 

The group’s investigations have scrutinised different elements of this option, focusing on sunitinib malate, which has been identified as a potent inhibitor. In one study, the group demonstrated that sunitinib could be adequately carried by a widely used, commercially available type of embolic microsphere. The researchers have also compared different in vitro methods to measure the drug released from sunitinib-eluting beads, focusing on the influence of varying hydrodynamic conditions.

 

In addition, the group has successfully tackled the challenge of loading drug-eluting beads with anti-angiogenic agents of low aqueous solubility, such as sunitinib, developing a novel method for doing so. The new loading method has been patented in Europe.

 

 

 

The prize will be presented to the Leman Research Group during the Opening and Awards Ceremony of the CIRSE Annual Meeting. We extend our hearty congratulations to the entire team!