A device that injects different drugs into tumors to test their
efficacy could soon help doctors tailor treatment regimens to a
patient’s cancer. Seattle’s Presage Biosciences is developing
the technology, which injects minute amounts of different cancer
drugs into a tumor while it is still in the body. Once the tumor
is removed, doctors can examine it to see which drugs killed its
cancerous cells. The drugs that work best within the tumor can
then be given in larger doses intravenously to fight the cancer
throughout the body. The technology could address a big
challenge for oncologists: finding a quick, effective treatment
that doesn’t cause patients undue suffering. An oncologist who
gives a patient an anti-cancer drug today has no guarantee that
it will work. In many cases, the drug will cause only harmful
side effects, says Jim Olson, a pediatric neuro-oncologist and
scientist at Seattle Children’s Hospital and the Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center. “I am sick of writing prescriptions for
kids to giv