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#Risks
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Added 4 years ago

I'm not super keen on Imagion's long term prospects. Their core technology of attaching the nanoparticle to a specific genetic 'tag' is not particularly unique. We already attach radioactive isotopes and dyes to a variety of 'tags'. Imagion has to first prove that their new nanoparticle is safe and effective and subsequently prove that it is BETTER than the existing technologies which are cheap and already installed in hospitals around the world.

The biggest benefit is a lack of ionising radiation. The risk of exposure to radiation is causing a cancer (usually with a lead time of 20+ years for solid cancers), and in patients who already HAVE a proven cancer the point is kind of moot, especially since many cancers occur in people old enough that a 20+ year lead time becomes less of an issue. The radiation dose in most of the imaging we use is really minimal and advances in processing power and physics is continually driving radiation doses down. Furthermore often we treat cancers with additional radiation. So a minimal reduction in radiation dose for a scan when you're potentially going to blast the tumour with radiation at a factor of 100x that dose reduction kind of seems a bit silly. 

On top of that the current techniques for things like sentinel node detection or PET imaging for cancer are really well studied and already integrated into clinical practice - doctors/services would have to learn the ins and outs of Imagion's technology and forget the old stuff (or maintain both simultaneously).

For example their trial in Her2 positive breast cancer (basically a type of breast cancer that expresses a specific 'tag' or genetic marker) would only be applicable to that subtype of breast cancer, services would have to maintain Imagion's new product/scanner as well as their existing infrastructure too.

Not to say that this doesn't have promise, I'm just not sure the time horizon is that rosy. Also doesn't mean that the hype machine won't lead to material gains either... (P.S. I'm a Radiologist)