Light Sciences Oncology Power Controller

Lighting the way for an innovative new cancer treatment. Light Sciences Oncology developed a ground-breaking, light-activated cancer treatment. To turn this breakthrough procedure into a commercially viable, market-ready device, they joined forces with Carbon.

A Targeted Solution

Removing solid tumors can be an important part of cancer therapy. But some tumors occur in locations that make surgical extraction difficult or dangerous. Light Sciences Oncology (LSO) developed Light Infusion Therapy™, an innovative, light-activated drug therapy for attacking solid tumors. By activating the drug only at the tumor site, this therapy is designed to minimize the systemic side effects traditionally associated with chemotherapy.

The LED array is made up of 100 LEDs imbedded at on the end of a very flexible, 1.6 mm diameter, catheter-like conductor.

Designing in Safety

As an invasive medical device, human factors and risk management are critical to both therapeutic efficacy and patient safety. With multiple practitioners involved, development of a clear procedure and easy-to-use interface was essential.

Preparation for the procedure begins in an ultrasound suite where a physician starts by pressing the “check” button on the Power Controller. Once pressed, the LED array lights up for three seconds and then go off. This ensures the Power Controller is operating correctly before the radiologist carefully inserts the LED array into the tumor.

The 10,000 Second Treatment

Once the LED array is in place, the patient is moved to chemotherapy where a light-activated drug is administered intravenously. The treating doctor slides the clear switch guard to the left, exposing the power button. When switched on, the Power Controller delivers a precisely calibrated wave length of light, activating the drug at the target site. Since the device is activated for two hours, forty-six minutes, and forty seconds—10,000 seconds—it’s important that the spring-loaded guard limits patient access to the switch during treatment. Once the timer has counted down to zero, the LED array is removed and patient is able to return home.

The cover guard ensures that the device isn’t inadvertently turned on or off.

Delivering on the Promise

LSO and Carbon worked together to develop a device for clinical trials—then leveraged the experience gained from clinical trials to commercialize the device. LSO focused on optimizing their core technology and IP, while Carbon’s multi-disciplinary team provided human factors research, industrial design, mechanical, electrical, and software engineering. Carbon took the product from specifications through concept development, detailed engineering, prototyping, verification testing and transfer to production, all the under FDA design controls. Carbon is proud to have helped LSO develop ground-breaking cancer therapy.

The LSO Power Controller is a high volume sterile device that includes custom LCD, electronics and software.