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Novel Materials and Processing Strategy for Oesophageal Stents (OSTENT)
Date du début: 1 août 2013, Date de fin: 1 août 2016 PROJET  TERMINÉ 

There is a need for addressing the condition and symptoms associated with oesophageal cancer in Europe and Worldwide. Around 5-10 in every 1000 men and around 1 in every 1000 women will develop oesophageal cancer during their lifetime, with care being mainly palliative via oesophageal stents, rather than therapeutic. This form of cancer has been demonstrated to be on the increase in Europe due to the growth in cases of adenocarcinomas, which in turn can be linked to the increase in alcohol consumption and obesity in western countries.There are problems associated with the current palliative treatments available for oesophageal cancer. Namely, tumour ingrowth into the stent, hyperplasic tissue formation and migration of the device. In the past few years, the scientific development of oesophageal stents has been on an increase However, the creation of a therapeutic device rather than merely a palliative one is still unavailable. Such an advancement would cause a major shift in the treatment of oesophageal cancer, allowing the state of the art to be pushed into new realms.This proposal will address the ultimate goal of treating the condition of oesophageal cancer with the aim of restoring oesophageal function and returning the lives of sufferers to near-normal states. This will be achieved by the creation of a novel drug-eluting, shape memory, degradable composite stent using the experience of the researcher (Dr Judith Juhasz) and supervisor (Professor Aldo Boccaccini) at the Institute of Biomaterials in the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Creation of this novel material within this Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship will advance the understanding of stent design for the treatment of oesophageal cancer and will put Europe in a leading position as a competitor in the biomaterials market.

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