In 2023 there are expected to be 20.1 million cancer patients, projected to rise to 28.4 million by 2040 according to Globocan 2021. Half of these patients need radiotherapy and up to 30% of those who receive radiotherapy suffer from severe complications or their treatment fails. In the UK alone, it cost £123 million per year to manage the complications and do further treatments. One of the major reasons is that there is no high accuracy feedback system to help clinicians to correct the treatment errors.
TRUEinvivo is making DOSEmapper™ bead-array detectors, which are arranged in 1D, 2D, and 3D configurations. These directly measure the actual radiation doses received at a tumour during radiotherapy so that can be compared to the patient treatment plan.
This helps the clinical team quickly correct any inaccuracies for the following treatment sessions and can be applied to 70% of cancer occurrences. Research has shown, by use of TRUEinvivo dosimeters up to 50% of these errors could be prevented saving £57 million per year in the UK.
Dr Shakardokht Jafari is the newly-appointed CEO and founder of TRUEinvivo. As she comes from a technical and research background, she recognises she needs to strengthen her knowledge on other aspects of business such as marketing, leadership, and management.
She hopes the mentoring, coaching, and networking opportunities as part of the Shott Scale Up Accelerator can help her understand where she needs support and then to work on those with help from mentors and training. She acknowledges that as a newly appointed CEO the Shott Scale Up Accelerator is a timely opportunity for her and TRUEinvivo.
TRUEinvivo are collaborating with Surrey University, UCL, Royal Marsden Hospital, Bristol University Hospital, and have received interest from MD Anderson Cancer Centre and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the US. They plan to spend time to better understand their market and aim to get their products to market in the US over the next 12 months.
