San Francisco a startup affiliated with Elon Musk’s Neuralink has begun testing its brain implant to detect and treat cancer in humans.
Coherence Neuro says it has temporarily placed a coin-sized implant in the brains of three people undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia. The implant was in place for about 30 minutes before it was removed, an significant safety check before the device could be implanted long-term in brain cancer patients.
Known as a brain-computer interface, the Coherence Neuro device is designed to detect the unique electrical signals of tumors and provide gentle electrical stimulation to prevent them from growing. While the implant was in the patients’ brains, the company was briefly able to see how the implant worked. (Patients gave consent before surgery.)
Matthew MacDougall, Neuralink’s chief neurosurgeon, is an advisor and investor in Coherence. Rory Murphy, a neurosurgeon at Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona who is an investigator in one of the Neuralink studies, is also expected to participate in future studies of the Coherence device.
The idea of treating brain tumors with electrical stimulation comes from the long-standing observation that tumor tissue has characteristic electrical properties. “It’s an electrical disorder, like epilepsy, like depression. It’s a problem with the network in the brain,” says Ben Woodington, CEO and co-founder of Coherence.
In 2019, scientists from Stanford University found that a group of aggressive brain tumors called high-grade gliomas fuel their own growth by forming synapses with fit neurons. In this study, scientists showed that giving mice an antiepileptic drug effectively interrupted the electrical signals reaching the tumors and slowed their growth. The operate of low current has also been shown to disrupt the division of cancer cells in brain tumors.
A wearable device called Optune, developed by Novocure, was first approved in 2011 to treat adults with glioblastoma, which accounts for about half of cancerous brain tumors. Earlier this year, the company received regulatory approval to treat pancreatic cancer with a device that attaches to the scalp or stomach using adhesive patches, depending on the type of cancer.
The Optune device can add several months to your survival if worn most of the day, but to operate it you have to shave your head and carry the battery in a backpack or hip belt.
Coherence wants to deliver electrical stimulation in a more comfortable way. Its implant is located in the skull and has 16 stretching threads that reach into the brain tissue. It is intended to be implanted during brain tumor resection surgery, during which the tumor is removed. Even if tumors can be completely removed, it is common for them to come back after surgery, which is something the Coherence device is designed to protect against.
Initially, the company’s goal is to treat glioblastoma multiforme, which has a higher risk of recurrence compared to lower-grade tumors. Glioblastoma patients have few options and a grim prognosis. Most patients live only 15 to 18 months after diagnosis, and the five-year survival rate is less than 10 percent.
Currently, patients with glioblastoma multiforme undergo brain MRI scans every two to three months so that doctors can monitor the growth of the tumor and adjust their treatment regimen if necessary. But Woodington doesn’t think it happens often enough. Brain tumors can suddenly become more aggressive, and clinicians don’t have a good idea of what’s happening between imaging tests. The Coherence device is designed to continuously monitor people and deliver tailored electrical stimulation.
The connected app will allow patients to log symptoms, which will be sent to doctors along with their medical condition and the amount of stimulation they receive. Doctors can remotely adjust therapy or let the device do it automatically. By detecting rapid tumor growth, the device can signal doctors when to intervene with surgery, before they can with MRI.
The company plans to start testing next year on patients with glioblastoma multiforme who will have the device permanently implanted.