£4.5m boost for 'world first' tech

PIONEERING FIRM AIMS TO TRANSFORM TREATMENT FOR BRAIN CANCERS

- By ALISTAIR HOUGHTON

A BIOTECH firm that's aiming to revolutionise treatment for brain cancers has secured £4.5m in funding to bring its pioneering technology to clinics.

Alderley Park-based QV Bioelectronics has created what it calls a 'world first implantable device' for treating for the most common type of primary brain cancer in adults. Cancer Research UK says hard-to-treat glioblastoma (GBM) accounted for some 32 per cent of all brain tumours diagnosed in England between 1995 and 2017. QV Bioelectronics says its technology could help extend the lives of thousands of GBM patients each year.

GMB affects some 2,200 adults each year in the UK. The Brain Tumour Charity says patients currently survive an average of 12-18 months after diagnosis.

It is an aggressive disease with few treatment options - just 3pc of patients diagnosed with the condition live for five years after diagnosis, while less than 1pc live for 15 years. Former Labour MP Dame Tessa Jowell died in 2018 a year after her diagnosis.

QV Bioelectronics' flagship implant technology GRACE was designed by founders Dr Christopher Bullock, a biomedical engineer, and Dr Richard Fu, an NHS neurosurgeon.