SPL Medical wants to make Ferrotran available for more patients, in order to give them an earlier and more precise treatment.

In certain conditions, doctors want to be able to look into your body without actually opening the body. Initially the Röntgen photo was developed for this purpose, but with this technique it is only possible to look at bone structures and larger deviations in eg the lungs or the chest. In the course of time, new systems have made their appearance, the latter of which is the MRI scan. With this method, very accurate images are made via magnetic beams over different parts of the body.

Contrasting agents are often used to improve image formation. A contrast liquid is usually injected through the vein and the recordings are then made.

Nevertheless, with the existing means you still can not see everything sufficiently sharply, nor do you distinguish all good structures from the bad ones.

Discover metastases at an early stage

Especially with metastases of cancer, it is important to discover and locate them at a very early stage. To achieve this, Ferrotran has been developed, a new contrast agent that contains very small iron particles (so-called nanoparticles). These particles are so small that they are fished out of the blood by the white blood bodies and transported to the lymph nodes. With normal lymph nodes, the iron particles spread over the entire gland, which then turns black. With lymph nodes where a metastasis has developed, the iron particles can not be stored and the lymph gland remains white. It is precisely this effect that ensures that metastases that are as small as 2 millimeter can already be made visible.

Through a natural process, the iron particles are then used in the body cells, just like other iron particles.

What are the benefits of Ferrotran?

Because metastases of cancer are now much more visible, the metastasis is often still at an early stage, and the treatment can take place much earlier and much more accurately. This has the advantage that fewer harmful side effects can occur and the cancer can be treated much better. Ultimately, we expect that the quality of life and possibly the life span can be greatly improved.

Which clinical research is taking place?

At the moment Ferrotran is not yet registered. For this, clinical research must first be performed. A total of 10 hospitals distributed across Europe participate in this study and a total of 180 patients are deployed for this. The main researcher is Prof Jelle Barendtsz of the Radboud hospital in Nijmegen. He has already looked at hundreds of patients individually with this contrast agent.

What exactly happens before clinical research?

After a careful examination, it is determined whether the patient fits within the examination or not. As soon as this is known, the patient is informed extensively about the nature of the research and asked if he wants to cooperate. The patient is given all the time to discuss this with any family members or friends. If he agrees, he will sign a form that once again describes in detail what happens to him during the investigation. During clinical research, the patient is continuously kept informed of all steps and results.

What is the purpose of the clinical trials?

With the clinical trials SPL Medical wants to make Ferrotran available for more patients, in order to give them an earlier and more precise treatment and a higher chance of full recovery.

3D animation of how Ferrotran can detect ultra small prostate cancer metastases.