MD Anderson, Rakuten Medical collaborate to advance Illuminox platform for cancer treatments

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on email
Share on print

MD Anderson Cancer Center and Rakuten Medical Inc. formed a collaboration to develop cancer therapies based on Rakuten Medical’s Illuminox technology platform.

“The Illuminox technology represents a new form of therapy with the potential to selectively target cancer cells while sparing surrounding normal tissues through light-activatable antibody-dye conjugates,” Jeffrey Myers, chair of head and neck surgery at MD Anderson, said in a statement.

The Illuminox technology platform is based on a cancer therapy called photoimmunotherapy, developed by Hisataka Kobayashi and colleagues from NCI. Illuminox is a technology combining drugs and laser device systems being evaluated for the treatment of different cancers.

Under the agreement, Rakuten Medical and MD Anderson will collaborate to conduct studies based on the Illuminox technology platform and to determine study designs, combination therapies, and target patient populations for future clinical trials. The alliance is designed to expand development of the technology and bring a novel therapeutic approach to patients with cancer, with an initial focus on those with head and neck cancers. This agreement expands upon an existing sponsored research agreement between Rakuten Medical and MD Anderson.

Table of Contents

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN

Thomas J. Lynch Jr. and Howard A. “Skip” Burris III lead two institutions that couldn’t be more different—an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center on one side of the country and a for-profit research enterprise on the other—but they stay up at nights worrying about the same thing.
In back-to-back congressional hearings earlier this week, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that the massive staff and budget cuts over which he has presided during his nearly four months on the job as well as even bigger cuts still looming on the horizon are a part of a single plan.
Natalie Phelps, a 43-year-old mother of two, has stage 4 colorectal cancer. She has become a central figure in the controversy over the dysfunction the Trump administration’s RIFs and budget cuts have brought to NIH. 

Never miss an issue!

Get alerts for our award-winning coverage in your inbox.

Login