New ways in cancer diagnostics and therapy

For the third time since 2015, more than 50 researchers and industry representatives from 15 countries came together to discuss new nanoparticle-based methods for cancer therapy and diagnostics, also known as theranostics. The thematic focus was on new materials for specific labelling of tumor and drug release, novel imaging methods for cancer diagnostics and nanotechnologies for cancer therapy.

Dr. Vladimir Sivakov, head of a work group at Leibniz-IPHT and program chair of the CTCT conference, is pleased by the successful continuation of the event: “The recent options for diagnosis and treatment need to be improved in order to detect cancer at a very early stage and to further develop a personalized cancer therapy. It is our objective to translate results from research more efficiently to clinical application. At the conference, we bring together scientist from different disciplines and link them with partners from industry. Thereby, we foster a targeted transfer of knowledge and technology, which accelerates the translation process”, says Sivakov.

A thematic series including topics from the conference was published in the Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology. The topics cover synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials, surface functionalization and modification of nanostructures with anticancer drugs, nanostructure toxicity and accumulation studies, optical approaches and photo-acoustic tomography for in vivo and in vitro studies as well as photodynamic, sonosensitizing and high frequency sensitizing methods as possible cancer therapy.

The conference was the umbrella for the annual meeting of the Baltic sea network “NanoPhoto”. The “NanoPhoto” network founded by Sivakov is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Science (BMBF) since 2014. It should contribute to the development of new material for cancer diagnostics and therapy in Europe.