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- Prime editing devised by researchers at the Broad Institute led by David Liu is a significant advance of the original CRISPR gene editing tool discovered in 2012
- CRISPR can cut and edit your DNA to correct defects inside your body’s cells to prevent and heal a range of incurable diseases and has revolutionized biomedicine
- The original CRISPR is fraught with inaccuracies referred to as off target effects
- Prime editing substantially reduces CRISPR’s off target effects and has the potential to correct up to 89% of known disease-causing genetic variations
- CRISPR also has the capacity to edit genes in an embryo in such a way that the change is heritable
- In 2018 Chinese researcher He Jiankui “created” the world’s first CRISPR babies
- This triggered international criticism from scientists and bioethicists
- A principal concern is that CRISPR is easy-to-use, cheap, regularly used in thousands of laboratories throughout the world and there is no internationally agreed and enforceable regulatory framework for its use
For better or worse we all now live in CRISPR’s world
In 2012 the world of biomedicine changed when a revolutionary gene editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 (an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) was discovered. The technology harnesses your body’s naturally occurring immune system that bacteria use to fight-off viruses and has the potential to forever change the fundamental nature of humanity. Since its discovery CRISPR has been developing at lightning speed primarily because it is simple and affordable and today is used in thousands of laboratories throughout the world.
In this Commentary
In this Commentary we describe prime editing, which is the latest advance of the CRISPR's tool box, devised bya team of researchers, led by Andrew Anzalone, a Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral fellow from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and published in the October 2019 edition of Nature. Prime editing is significant because it provides a means to eliminate the unintentional consequences of CRISPR and therefore bring the technique closer for use in clinics. But this is still a long way off.
We also review a case where an ambitious scientist “created” the first CRISPR babies. This immediately triggered international criticism and a call for tighter regulatory control of the technology. Scientists and bioethicists are concerned that CRISPR can easily be used to create heritable DNA changes, which ultimately could lead to ‘designer babies’.
These two accounts of CRISPR might seem “opposites” and not sit well together in a single Commentary. Notwithstanding, what prompted putting them together was John Travis, the News Managing Editor of the well-known scientific journal Science, who soon after CRISPR’s discovery in 2012 said, “For better or worse we all now live in CRISPR’s world”.
CRISPR and your DNA
CRISPR is different to traditional gene therapy, which uses viruses to insert new genes into cells to try and treat diseases and has caused some safety challenges. CRISPR, which avoids the use of viruses, was conceived in 2007 when a yogurt company identified an unexpected defence mechanism that its bacteria used to fight off viruses. Subsequent research made a surprising observation that bacteria could remember viruses. CRISPR has been likened to a pair of microscopic scissors that can cut and edit your DNA to correct defects inside your body’s cells to prevent and heal a range of intractable diseases. The standard picture of DNA is a double helix, which looks similar to a ladder that has been twisted. The steps in this twisted ladder are DNA base pairs. The fundamental building blocks of DNA are the four bases adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). They are commonly known by their respective letters, A, C, G and T. Three billion of these letters form the complete manual for building and maintaining your body, but tiny errors can cause disease. For example, a mutation that turned one specific A into a T results in the most common form of sickle cell disease.
We also review a case where an ambitious scientist “created” the first CRISPR babies. This immediately triggered international criticism and a call for tighter regulatory control of the technology. Scientists and bioethicists are concerned that CRISPR can easily be used to create heritable DNA changes, which ultimately could lead to ‘designer babies’.
These two accounts of CRISPR might seem “opposites” and not sit well together in a single Commentary. Notwithstanding, what prompted putting them together was John Travis, the News Managing Editor of the well-known scientific journal Science, who soon after CRISPR’s discovery in 2012 said, “For better or worse we all now live in CRISPR’s world”.
CRISPR and your DNA
CRISPR is different to traditional gene therapy, which uses viruses to insert new genes into cells to try and treat diseases and has caused some safety challenges. CRISPR, which avoids the use of viruses, was conceived in 2007 when a yogurt company identified an unexpected defence mechanism that its bacteria used to fight off viruses. Subsequent research made a surprising observation that bacteria could remember viruses. CRISPR has been likened to a pair of microscopic scissors that can cut and edit your DNA to correct defects inside your body’s cells to prevent and heal a range of intractable diseases. The standard picture of DNA is a double helix, which looks similar to a ladder that has been twisted. The steps in this twisted ladder are DNA base pairs. The fundamental building blocks of DNA are the four bases adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). They are commonly known by their respective letters, A, C, G and T. Three billion of these letters form the complete manual for building and maintaining your body, but tiny errors can cause disease. For example, a mutation that turned one specific A into a T results in the most common form of sickle cell disease.
The original CRISPR
The original CRISPR tool, which is the first and most popular gene editing system, uses a guide RNA (principally a messenger carrying instructions from your DNA for controlling the synthesis of proteins) to locate a mutated gene plus an enzyme, like Cas9, to cut the double-stranded gene helix and create space for functioning genes to be inserted. However, a concern about CRISPR is that the editing could go awry and cause unintended changes in DNA that could trigger health problems. Findings of a study published in the July 2018 edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology found that such inaccuracies, referred to as off-target effects, were substantially higher than originally reported and some were thought to silence genes that should be active and activate genes that should be silent. These off-target effects, such as random insertions, deletions, translocations, or other base-to-base conversions, pose significant challenges for developing policy associated with the technology.
Subsequently however, the paper was retracted, and an error correction was posted on a scientific website. Contrary to their original findings, the authors of the Nature Biotechnology paper restated that the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing approach, "can precisely edit the genome at the organismal level and may not introduce numerous, unintended, off-target mutations".
Notwithstanding, researchers remained concerned about CRISPR’s off target effects and several devised a technique, referred to as base editing, to reduce these. Base editing is described in three research papers published in 2017: one in the November edition of the journal ‘Protein and Cell’, another in the October edition of ‘Science’ the and a third by researchers from the Broad Institute, in the October edition of the journal ‘Nature’. Base editing takes the original CRISPR-Cas9 and fuses it to proteins that can make four precise DNA changes: it can change the letters C-to-T, T-to-C, A-to-G and G-to-A. The technique genetically transforms base pairs at a target position in the genome of living cells with more than 50% efficiency and virtually no detectable off-target effects. Despite its success, there remained other types of point mutations that scientists wanted to target for diseases.
Subsequently however, the paper was retracted, and an error correction was posted on a scientific website. Contrary to their original findings, the authors of the Nature Biotechnology paper restated that the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing approach, "can precisely edit the genome at the organismal level and may not introduce numerous, unintended, off-target mutations".
Base editing
Notwithstanding, researchers remained concerned about CRISPR’s off target effects and several devised a technique, referred to as base editing, to reduce these. Base editing is described in three research papers published in 2017: one in the November edition of the journal ‘Protein and Cell’, another in the October edition of ‘Science’ the and a third by researchers from the Broad Institute, in the October edition of the journal ‘Nature’. Base editing takes the original CRISPR-Cas9 and fuses it to proteins that can make four precise DNA changes: it can change the letters C-to-T, T-to-C, A-to-G and G-to-A. The technique genetically transforms base pairs at a target position in the genome of living cells with more than 50% efficiency and virtually no detectable off-target effects. Despite its success, there remained other types of point mutations that scientists wanted to target for diseases.
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- Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are a result of diabetes complications and can lead to amputations and death
- Scientists and clinicians struggle to reduce the vast and escalating burden of DFUs
- In wealthy countries like the UK there are specialist multidisciplinary diabetic foot clinics
- New and innovative therapies are beginning to emerge, which accelerates the rate of complete wound closure for DFUs
- Notwithstanding new products coming to market, the best therapy is prevention
The vast and rapidly growing burden of diabetic foot ulcers and amniotic tissue
This Commentary discusses diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) within the context of chronic wounds. Although chronic wounds tend to be an overlooked area of medicine and do not feature prominently in the popular media; NHS England, spends £5bn a year treating 2m patients with chronic wounds. The incidence rates of people affected with wounds are rising fast and some experts suggest that nearly 60% of all wounds become chronic. According to Una Adderley, a wound expert and Director of NHS England’s National Wound Care Strategy Programme, therapy in England for chronic wounds is patchy and suboptimal, “leading to non-healing or delayed healing (which) increases the number of people living with chronic wounds. Too many people are receiving care for which there is little evidence that it works and too few are receiving care for which there is strong evidence that it works”.
According to a 2019 report by the consulting firm MarketsandMarkets the global wound care market in 2019 is estimated to be US$20bn and projected to reach US$25bn by 2024. Market drivers include the vast and fast-growing incidence rates of hard-to-heal chronic wounds, a large proportion of which are associated with diabetes, increasing R&D spending, technological developments, the growing use of regenerative medicine in wound care, recent advances in molecular data that have contributed to genome sequencing, and the increasing use of AI in the management of wound care solutions. The chronic wound care markets of North America and Europe are expected to grow at a CAGR of ~4.5% for the next 5 years, but the highest CAGR is expected in Asia where the vast pool of patients is increasing significantly, and favourable reimbursement policies are expected to persist in the region for the next decade.
When accompanied by an underlying condition such as diabetes, chronic wounds in the form of DFUs, are challenging to heal and have a deleterious effect on your quality of life: you experience pain, suffering, disfigurement, anxiety impaired mobility, malodour and social isolation. Because the prevalence of diabetes is increasing worldwide, DFUs have become a large, severe and growing public health issue as described in two research papers published in 2019.
One, published in the May 2019 edition of Diabetic Medicine, reports findings of an 18 year study of DFUs, and suggests that although current therapies in the UK result in better than previously reported survival in persons < 65 years (10 year survival is 85%), treatments fail to, “reduce recurrent incidence (of DFUs and) cumulative prevalence of all ulcers continues to increase”; from 20.7 to 33.1 per 1,000 persons between 2003 to 2017. The second paper, published in the January-March 2019 edition of the International Journal of Applied Basic Research, report sfindings of a prospective Indian study of 63 patients >18 with DFUs and shows the increase in the severity of DFUs and the consequent increase in the rate of hospital readmissions, amputations and mortality.
In this Commentary
This Commentary briefly describes the increasing prevalence of diabetes and its complications, the causes and symptoms of DFUs, which benefit from specialist multidisciplinary clinics and strategies to prevent them deteriorating to the point where the only therapy is amputation. We complete the Commentary by briefly mentioning how human amniotic membrane is being used in the current standard of care as a therapy for DFUs and describe the findings of two amniotic membrane studies. Notwithstanding these and other new product offerings coming to market, which accelerate the closure of DFUs, the most efficacious therapy for DFUs is prevention.
Diabetes and DFUs
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when your pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when your body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Insulin is a hormone that regulates your blood sugar level. High blood sugar levels (hyperglycaemia) is a common effect of uncontrolled diabetes and can lead to serious complications, which include blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke, diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs), and lower limb amputations. According to the World Health Organization, the global prevalence of diabetes among people >18 has risen from 4.7% in 1980 to 8.5% in 2014. Today, some 422m people worldwide have diabetes, which has increased from 108m in 1980. There is expected to be some 642m people >18 living with diabetes by 2040.
If you have diabetes you are prone to ulcers because your increased blood sugar levels create thick, sticky blood, which can lead to peripheral artery disease (PAD), neuropathy (a loss of sensation due to nerve damage), and/or problems with circulation due to damage to your small blood vessels, which reduce your body’s ability to heal injuries.
Signs and symptoms of DFUs include numbness in your toes and a loss of feeling in your feet, painful tingling sensations, blisters, minor abrasions and cuts without pain that do not heal, skin discoloration and temperature changes With a loss of sensation, a minor injury to your foot can go unnoticed and untreated, and quickly lead to an ulcer. If you are living with diabetes, ulceration is an ongoing challenge. Only about 66% of DFUs eventually heal without surgery. If you have had a foot ulcer you are at increased risk of further ulceration. Studies suggest that around 25% of people living with diabetes who become ulcer-free have developed new ulcers within 3 months, and 34% to 41% within 12 months. Some foot ulcers are painful, and treatment often requires that you spend a significant amount of time visiting clinics to frequently change your wound dressings. The poor prognosis of DFUs is often attributed to other complications of diabetes such as peripheral neuropathy, peripheral vascular disease and persistent hyperglycaemia. Managing diabetic foot ulcers is a major challenge for healthcare systems globally and the main cause of more than half of nontraumatic lower limb amputations: every 30 seconds in the world, a lower limb is amputated due to diabetes. Amputations have life-altering repercussions for patients and represent a significant burden for the healthcare industry as a whole. Between 0.03% and 1.5% of people with DFUs require an amputation and most amputations start with ulcers.
Major amputations and mortality rates
For major amputations, the prognosis is poor because your other limb is at risk. Research suggests that only around 50% of patients survive for two years after major diabetes related amputations. The one-year mortality rate has been estimated at 32.7% after major amputation and 18.3% after minor amputation if you have diabetes. Five-year cumulative mortality for patients with diabetes undergoing a first major amputation has been estimated at 68% to 78.7%. Thus, if you have diabetes and a DFU you have almost a 50% chance of being dead within five years, which is significantly higher than for people with either breast (18%) or prostate (8%) cancers.
The UK
In the UK some 70,000 to 90,000 people living with diabetes have DFUs at any one time. If you have diabetes you are about 23 times more likely to experience an amputation than someone without diabetes. In England, diabetes leads to more than 9,000 lower limb amputations each year. Each week in England some 169 people undergo an amputation procedure as a result of diabetes. Analysis by the charity Diabetes UK found that between 2014 and 2017, 26,378 people had lower limb amputations linked to diabetes, which represented a 19% rise from 2010 to 2013. Diabetes affects almost 3.7m people in the UK. In 2017 NHS England launched a special transformation fund aimed at improving patients with diabetes access to specialist multidiscipline foot care clinics to help avoid amputations.
Specialist multidisciplinary treatment centres
In the video below Hisham Rashid, Consultant Vascular Surgeon at King’s College Hospital, London, describes a DFU and explains why they benefit from specialist multidisciplinary treatment centres. “DFUs have similar features to other ulcers, and often present in the toes and heal areas of the foot with the loss of skin and an exposed base with infection and necrosis. The significant difference is that a DFU usually comes with multiple pathologies, which, in addition to infection, include neuropathy and peripheral vascular disease. DFUs do not heal quickly and often require vascular surgeons working closely with radiologists, orthopaedic surgeons to correct any deformity and a microbiology unit to manage infection,” says Rashid.
What are diabetic foot ulcers?
Why does therapy for diabetic foot ulcers complications require a special center?
Rashid also explains that different therapies are used to heal DFUs. “If the patient has peripheral artery disease (ischaemia) then this has to be treated first with an angioplasty or a bypass or both to improve blood circulation into the foot. Once this is achieved, the ulcer is debrided and dressed. There are different dressings, which include negative pressure dressing, which sucks the blood into the tissues and thereby promotes healing. Sometimes skin graphs are necessary to get the tissue to heal faster. This can be done as a day surgery using local anaesthetic,” says Rashid.
How do diabetic foot ulcers heal?
Prevention of DFUs
Given the severity of DFUs and their vast and rapidly increasing burden on individuals with diabetes and healthcare systems, increasing attention is being devoted to prevention, which involves adequate glycaemic control and modification of risk factors. While education is an obligation of healthcare professionals, it is crucial that people living with diabetes themselves increase their awareness and understanding of the condition and integrate regular feet examination and care into their daily lives. In the video below, Roni Sharvanu Saha, Consultant in Acute Medicine, Diabetes and Endocrinology, St George’s Hospital, London, suggests that, “We’re getting better at understanding why DFUs occur, and better at examining peoples’ feet. In England, if you have diabetes you are entitled to a clinical examination of your feet at least twice a year. Checks include whether you have any minor abrasions, or whether you can distinguish hot and cold water with your feet, and signs that you might have problems with your circulation and nervous system. Ensuring that people living with diabetes receive regular checks means that if you have reduced or poor circulation, you’re referred to the correct specialty team in order to protect you from developing DFUs. Prevention is better that cure. If we can get better at examining feet, outcomes will improve. If diabetes is not controlled complications will occur”.
New therapies and amniotic membrane
With the well-being of millions of people living with diabetes at stake, there is a pressing need for therapies that bring DFUs to closure as quickly as possible. The current standard of care (SOC) regimen for DFUs involves maintaining a moist wound environment, debriding nonviable tissue, relieving pressure with an offloading boot and preventing or managing wound infection. Even with a good SOC, DFUs are notoriously slow to close, creating a demand for new and innovative medicines and techniques to enhance closure. Increasingly, there are advanced therapies to facilitate healing DFUs when traditional approaches fail.
An example of a relatively new product to help close DFUs is human amniotic membrane. Amniotic membrane has been used for wound healing purposes since the early 20th century, but it represents a relatively recent and promising advanced therapy to accelerate healing in DFUs. Amniotic membrane is derived from the human placental sac that supports the foetus by forming the inner lining of the amniotic cavity. Functions of amniotic membrane include the exchange of water-soluble molecules and the production of cytokines and growth factors to facilitate the development of the foetes. The anatomic makeup of amniotic membrane dictates its functionality, and a significant characteristic is its ability to produce a wide variety of regenerative growth factors that facilitate foetal development. These growth factors, in combination with various other cytokines, have substantial potential benefits in wound healing, which include creating a structural scaffold for tissue proliferation, modulating the immune response, reducing inflammation, stimulating angiogenesis and facilitating tissue re-modelling.
Two studies of human amniotic membrane products used in wound healing
Two small but significant prospective cohort studies on the effectiveness of human amniotic tissue to treat DFUs were reported in the journal Wounds. One in the March 2016 edition and another in the November 2017 edition. The first is a prospective, randomized, multicentre, controlled study and the second a retrospective cohort study of 20 patients. In both studies amniotic membrane is used in combination with SOC, including debridement, well-controlled offloading, management of bacterial burden, and adequate perfusion.
Both studies suggested that the use of amniotic membrane is more likely to: (i) lead to complete wound closure, (ii) accelerate the rate of wound closure, and (iii) present no additional safety risks when compared to SOC alone in the treatment of DFUs. The first study demonstrated a statistically significant advantage of an amniotic membrane as compared to SOC in facilitating closure of chronic DFUs. 45% of participants achieved complete wound closure, while 0% of SOC participants alone achieved complete wound closure within 6 weeks. Further, there appears to be no increased rate of adverse events associated with the use of amniotic membrane in these wounds. The second study was a retrospective cohort study using a human amniotic membrane on 20 patients presenting with DFUs and venous leg ulcers. Patients underwent a 2-week ‘run-in’ period with good SOC; and if upon their return the ulcer had closed ≥ 30% in area, the subject was excluded from participation in the study. All wounds were effectively closed in approximately 10 weeks, DFUs in 12 weeks and venous leg ulcers in 9 weeks, and no adverse events were noted, suggesting that the therapy using human amniotic membrane is safe.
Discussion
The most significant limitation of both studies is their small sample size, which decreases the generalizability of their findings. Notwithstanding, the studies suggest that amniotic tissue products are efficacious options for DFUs when used in conjunction with the current SOC, which includes aggressive sharp debridement, adequate offloading and the application of sterile dressings. Further, amniotic membrane, like most biologic tissue products, requires significant processing and therefore its cost is relatively high: on average between US$500 to US$1,000 per application. Notwithstanding, these costs are significantly less than the average annual therapy cost of US$28,000 per patient for SOC for a DFU. And therefore, using amniotic tissue in the therapy for DFUs could result in significant savings for healthcare systems. Tissue storage as well as the time and skill required to apply amniotic membranes also represent challenges inherent to these products.
Takeaways
Millions of people are living with diabetes, which, if not managed appropriately can lead to life-changing complications. A DFU is one such complication, which often starts with a minor abrasion on your ankle or toe that you do not feel and therefore tend not to perceive to be important, until that is, it quickly escalates into a chronic wound that does not heal and eventually leads to a lower limb amputation. In most wealthy nations, health providers are aware of the dangers of DFUs and have set up multi-disciplinary diabetic foot clinics to treat and manage the condition. However, access to such clinics is patchy and the prevalence of DFUs continues to increase, and the eye-watering costs of treating and managing DFUs continue to escalate. In recent years, the therapy for DFUs has been improved by technological advances. We describe one of these: the use of amniotic tissue in conjunction with standard of care protocols. Recent research findings suggest that the use of amniotic tissue holds out the possibility not only of significant therapeutic benefits, but also of substantial cost savings for healthcare systems. Notwithstanding, perhaps the most efficacious therapy for DFUs is prevention. This means investing in effective education and awareness programs, good glycaemic control and appropriate footwear; encouraging people living with diabetes to participate in regular foot examinations and screening for peripheral neuropathy and peripheral arterial disease, and insisting that early telltale signs of foot wounds, no matter how minor, should be immediately referred to a specialist clinic.
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- Hydrocephalus is a chronic condition that occurs when excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collects in your brain’s ventricles and increases pressure inside your head
- Failure to treat the condition can lead to morbidity and death
- First line therapy is the surgical insertion of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) to restore your CSF circulation
- A significant risk with the procedure is infection
- To reduce infection manufacturers’ impregnate standard shunts with either silver or antibiotics and market the impregnated shunts at higher prices
- Which VPS (standard, silver or antibiotic) provides patients with the most protection from infection?
- Which VPS is most cost effective for healthcare systems?
Standard, silver or antibiotic?
“It” affects people in all walks of life and from every socioeconomic background throughout the world. “It” is as common as Down's Syndrome and more common than Spina Bifida. One out of every 1,000 babies are born with “it”. “It” affects about 1m people in the US and “it” is the most common reason for brain surgery in children.
“It” is Hydrocephalus; a chronic condition that occurs when excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collects in your brain’s ventricles, (fluid-filled areas). CSF disperses from your ventricles around your brain and spinal cord. Too much CSF may result in an accumulation of fluid, which can cause the pressure inside of your head to increase. In a child, this causes the bones of an immature skull to expand and separate to a larger-than-normal appearance.
There are no medical therapies to effectively treat hydrocephalus. The only viable treatment is surgical. The gold standard therapy is the insertion of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS), which is a common surgical procedure to restore your CSF circulation, regulate its flow and allow you to have a normal daily life. Notwithstanding, a significant challenge is infection at the site of the surgical wound, the shunt or in the cerebrospinal fluid itself (meningitis). This effects about 15% of hydrocephalus patients and may result in further surgeries, extended hospital stays, a reduction in your quality of life and a significant hike in healthcare costs.
To reduce potential infection manufacturers’ impregnate standard shunts with either silver (silver has benefits in reducing or preventing infection) or antibiotics and market the impregnated shunts at higher prices.
“It” is Hydrocephalus; a chronic condition that occurs when excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collects in your brain’s ventricles, (fluid-filled areas). CSF disperses from your ventricles around your brain and spinal cord. Too much CSF may result in an accumulation of fluid, which can cause the pressure inside of your head to increase. In a child, this causes the bones of an immature skull to expand and separate to a larger-than-normal appearance.
There are no medical therapies to effectively treat hydrocephalus. The only viable treatment is surgical. The gold standard therapy is the insertion of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS), which is a common surgical procedure to restore your CSF circulation, regulate its flow and allow you to have a normal daily life. Notwithstanding, a significant challenge is infection at the site of the surgical wound, the shunt or in the cerebrospinal fluid itself (meningitis). This effects about 15% of hydrocephalus patients and may result in further surgeries, extended hospital stays, a reduction in your quality of life and a significant hike in healthcare costs.
To reduce potential infection manufacturers’ impregnate standard shunts with either silver (silver has benefits in reducing or preventing infection) or antibiotics and market the impregnated shunts at higher prices.
In this Commentary
This Commentary describes hydrocephalus and reports findings of a clinical study designed to determine, which ventriculoperitoneal shunt (standard, silver or antibiotic) provides patients with the most protection against infection and which type of shunt is most cost effective for healthcare systems. For completeness the Commentary briefly describes the causes of hydrocephalus, its signs and symptoms and how the condition is diagnosed. Also, the Commentary briefly describes the procedure to insert a ventriculoperitoneal shunt.
Hydrocephalus
Hydrocephalus is a condition that occurs when excess CSF collects in your brain’s ventricles. CSF cushions your brain and protects it from injury inside your skull. Also, the fluid acts as a delivery system for nutrients that your brain needs and takes away waste products. Normally, CSF flows through these ventricles to the base of the brain. The fluid then bathes your brain and spinal cord before it is reabsorbed into your blood. When this normal flow is disrupted, the build-up of fluid can create harmful pressure on your brain’s tissues, which can damage your brain.
There are two principal classifications for hydrocephalus: (i) communicating and (ii) non-communicating hydrocephali. Both can be subdivided into congenital (present at birth) and acquired (occurs following birth). Communicating hydrocephalus can also be subdivided into normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) and hydrocephalus ex-vacuo, which occurs when there is damage to your brain caused by stroke or injury. It is generally understood that congenital hydrocephalus can be caused by genetic defects, which can be passed from one or both parents to a child, but the direct hereditary links are still being investigated. Notwithstanding, experts have found a connection between a rare genetic disorder called L1 syndrome and hydrocephalus. L1 syndrome is a group of conditions that mainly affects the nervous system and occurs almost exclusively in males.
Most babies born with hydrocephalus or who develop hydrocephalus as infants will have a normal lifespan, and approximately 40 to 50% will have normal intelligence. Seizure disorders have been diagnosed in about 10% of children with hydrocephalus and the mortality rate for infants is approximately 5%.
In the video below Sanj Bassi, a Consultant Neurosurgeon at King’s College Hospital, London and a member of the London Neurosurgery Partnership, describes hydrocephalus:
There are two principal classifications for hydrocephalus: (i) communicating and (ii) non-communicating hydrocephali. Both can be subdivided into congenital (present at birth) and acquired (occurs following birth). Communicating hydrocephalus can also be subdivided into normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) and hydrocephalus ex-vacuo, which occurs when there is damage to your brain caused by stroke or injury. It is generally understood that congenital hydrocephalus can be caused by genetic defects, which can be passed from one or both parents to a child, but the direct hereditary links are still being investigated. Notwithstanding, experts have found a connection between a rare genetic disorder called L1 syndrome and hydrocephalus. L1 syndrome is a group of conditions that mainly affects the nervous system and occurs almost exclusively in males.
Most babies born with hydrocephalus or who develop hydrocephalus as infants will have a normal lifespan, and approximately 40 to 50% will have normal intelligence. Seizure disorders have been diagnosed in about 10% of children with hydrocephalus and the mortality rate for infants is approximately 5%.
In the video below Sanj Bassi, a Consultant Neurosurgeon at King’s College Hospital, London and a member of the London Neurosurgery Partnership, describes hydrocephalus:
Causes
Some premature babies have bleeding in the brain, which can block the flow of CSF and cause hydrocephalus. Other possible causes of the condition include: X-linked hydrocephalus, which is caused by a mutation of the X chromosome and rare genetic disorders such as Dandy Walker malformation. This is a congenital (present at birth) defect, which affects the back part of the brain (the cerebellum) that controls movement, behaviour and cognitive ability. The most common cause of congenital hydrocephalus is an obstruction called aqueductal stenosis, which occurs when the long, narrow passageway between your third and fourth ventricles (the aqueduct of Sylvius) is narrowed or blocked, perhaps because of infection, haemorrhage, or a tumour. Other conditions, such as neural tube defects (like spina bifida), are also associated with hydrocephalus.
Signs and symptoms
Early signs of hydrocephalus in infants include bulging fontanel, which is the soft membranous gaps between the cranial bones on the surface of the infant skull; a rapid increase in head circumference; eyes that are fixed downward and poor feeding. In both infants and adults, symptoms include seizures; fuzzy vision, nausea, vomiting and excessive sleepiness.
Diagnosing hydrocephalus
The diagnosis of hydrocephalus may be made before birth by an antenatal ultrasound. However, in many cases, hydrocephalus does not develop until the third trimester of a pregnancy and, therefore, may not be detected on an antenatal ultrasound. Congenital hydrocephalus may be diagnosed at birth. Important considerations include antenatal and birth history of your baby and whether there is a family history of hydrocephalus. Physical examination at birth can also detect hydrocephalus. A measurement of the circumference of your baby’s head is taken and compared to a graph that can identify normal and abnormal ranges for a baby’s age. Of interest to an early diagnosis for hydrocephalus are the developmental milestones in older babies since the condition may be associated with developmental delay, which might require further medical investigations for potential underlying problems. Other tests that may be performed to confirm a diagnosis of hydrocephalus include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a computed tomography (CT) scan. MRI or CT images can reveal swellings of your brain or another condition that might be causing your symptoms, such as a tumour.
In the video below Bassi describes how hydrocephalus is diagnosed:
In the video below Bassi describes how hydrocephalus is diagnosed:
Insertion of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt
Although currently there is no known way to prevent or cure hydrocephalus, with early detection and appropriate intervention, the future for many patients with the condition is promising. The gold standard treatment option available today is the surgical insertion of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt.
A shunt consists of two thin, long flexible hollow tubes, called catheters, with a valve that keeps fluid from your brain flowing in the right direction and at the proper rate and thereby reduces brain pressure to a safe level. To install a shunt a surgeon will make a small insertion behind your ear and also drill a small borehole in your scull. One catheter is then threaded into one of your brain’s ventricles through the hole in your scull, and the other is inserted behind your ear and threaded subcutaneously down to your chest and into your abdomen where excess CSF can drain safely, and your body can reabsorb it. Your surgeon may attach a tiny pump to both catheters and place it under the skin behind your ear. The pump will automatically activate to remove fluid when the pressure in your skull increases. Shunts can be programmable (externally adjustable by a magnetic device) to activate when the fluid increases to a certain volume, or non-programmable. Most surgeons tend to choose a programmable model, despite the fact that in clinical studies both types perform comparably.
A shunt consists of two thin, long flexible hollow tubes, called catheters, with a valve that keeps fluid from your brain flowing in the right direction and at the proper rate and thereby reduces brain pressure to a safe level. To install a shunt a surgeon will make a small insertion behind your ear and also drill a small borehole in your scull. One catheter is then threaded into one of your brain’s ventricles through the hole in your scull, and the other is inserted behind your ear and threaded subcutaneously down to your chest and into your abdomen where excess CSF can drain safely, and your body can reabsorb it. Your surgeon may attach a tiny pump to both catheters and place it under the skin behind your ear. The pump will automatically activate to remove fluid when the pressure in your skull increases. Shunts can be programmable (externally adjustable by a magnetic device) to activate when the fluid increases to a certain volume, or non-programmable. Most surgeons tend to choose a programmable model, despite the fact that in clinical studies both types perform comparably.
In the video below Sanj Bassi describes both VPS therapy and some temporary treatment options for hydrocephalus. The latter includes medicines, which decrease the production of CFS, draining fluid from the spine via a lumbar puncture and draining fluid directly from your head into a bag via an external drainage system.
The Lancet study
To determine the relative clinical benefits and cost-effectiveness of the three different ventriculoperitoneal shunts (standard, silver or antibiotic) following their de novo insertions, the UK’s National Institute for Health Research funded a large prospective multi-centre randomised controlled clinical study - The British Antibiotic and Silver Impregnated Catheters for Ventriculoperitoneal Shunts Study - (BASICS). Findings were published in the September 2019 edition of The Lancet. These concluded that shunts impregnated with antibiotics significantly reduce the risk of infection and also healthcare costs compared to both standard shunts and those impregnated with silver. Conor Mallucci, Consultant Paediatric Neurosurgeon at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool, UK, and lead author of the study, suggests that shunts impregnated with antibiotics should be, “the first choice for patients with hydrocephalus undergoing insertion of their first ventriculoperitoneal shunt”.
The Study’s clinical findings
Patient recruitment for the study took place between 2013 and 2017. Principal investigators assessed 3,505 patients and recruited 1,605 (children and adults) from 19 specialist neurosurgical centres across the UK & Ireland. Participants presented with hydrocephalus of any aetiology [including idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), which is a condition with an unknown cause or causes and associated with raised fluid pressure around the brain]. All required an insertion of their first ventriculoperitoneal shunt.
All shunts used in the study were CE marked medical devices intended for the condition. Participants were randomly assigned to three groups: one group of 536 received a standard shunt, another of 531 received a silver impregnated shunt, and a third group of 538 received an antibiotic impregnated shunt. The minimum patient follow-up period was six months and the maximum two years. Six per cent of evaluable patients in both the standard and silver groups presented with infections and required a shunt revision. This compared to only 2% in the antibiotic impregnated shunt group that became infected and needed revising. The difference is significant.
All shunts used in the study were CE marked medical devices intended for the condition. Participants were randomly assigned to three groups: one group of 536 received a standard shunt, another of 531 received a silver impregnated shunt, and a third group of 538 received an antibiotic impregnated shunt. The minimum patient follow-up period was six months and the maximum two years. Six per cent of evaluable patients in both the standard and silver groups presented with infections and required a shunt revision. This compared to only 2% in the antibiotic impregnated shunt group that became infected and needed revising. The difference is significant.
The Study’s economic findings
The study’s clinical significance is enhanced by the fact that it provides the first health economic analysis of different VPS therapies from a UK perspective. Findings suggest that using an antibiotic impregnated VPS rather than either a standard shunt or those impregnated with silver, would result in annual savings to NHS England of approximately £135,753 (US$166,795) per infection avoided, which amounts to annual savings of some £7m (US$8.6m).
The research has a further significance because, despite the high medical costs of treating hydrocephalus, the annual spend on hydrocephalus research is relatively low. For example, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) invests less than US$8m per year in hydrocephalus research. This means that there is a dearth of clinical studies associated with the condition and no long-term follow-up research over the lifetime of patients.
Although BASICS is a significant study it should be mentioned that it is restricted by the relatively low proportion of patient-reported outcomes: 32, 31 and 12 reported infections after insertion of the standard, silver and antibiotic VPS’s respectively.
The research has a further significance because, despite the high medical costs of treating hydrocephalus, the annual spend on hydrocephalus research is relatively low. For example, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) invests less than US$8m per year in hydrocephalus research. This means that there is a dearth of clinical studies associated with the condition and no long-term follow-up research over the lifetime of patients.
Although BASICS is a significant study it should be mentioned that it is restricted by the relatively low proportion of patient-reported outcomes: 32, 31 and 12 reported infections after insertion of the standard, silver and antibiotic VPS’s respectively.
Takeaways
This Commentary describes the findings of an important, well-conceived and well-executed clinical study of hydrocephalus. Its importance is derived from the fact that there’s a dearth of large prospective multi-centre randomised controlled clinical studies on hydrocephalus. The study’s findings are significant because they unequivocally suggest that, not only are antibiotic impregnated ventriculoperitoneal shunts more likely to deliver better clinical outcomes, but using them, instead of standard or silver impregnated ventriculoperitoneal shunts, would result in a substantial reduction in healthcare costs.
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- CanRisk is a new online gene-based health-risk evaluation algorithm for detecting breast cancer
- It identifies people with different levels of risk of breast cancer, not just those at high risk
- As the infotech and biotech revolutions merge expect authority in medicine to be transferred to algorithms
- CanRisk has the potential to provide a cheap, rapid, non-invasive, highly sensitive and accurate diagnosis before symptoms present
- Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and is the 5th most common cause of death from cancer in women
- Currently mammography screening, which has a sensitivity between 72% and 87%, is the gold standard for preventing and controlling breast cancer
- For every death from breast cancer that is prevented by screening, it is estimated there will be three false-positive cases that are detected and treated unnecessarily
- Lack of resources do not support breast cancer screening in many regions of the world where the incidence rates of the disease are rapidly increasing
- In the near-term expect interest in the CanRisk algorithm to increase
A new comprehensive gene-based breast cancer prediction device
A new online gene-based health-risk evaluation device called CanRisk has the potential to identify women with different levels of risk of breast cancer; not just women who are at high risk. Predicated on a comprehensive algorithm, CanRisk is one of several innovations currently in development, which include novel methods for predicting the recurrence of breast cancer, a new class of molecules that aim to halt or destroy breast cancer, and liquid biopsies, which determine the presence and recurrent risk of the disease through the detection of tumour cells in peoples’ blood.
Although over the past two decades there have been significant improvements in the detection and treatment of breast cancer, the disease remains the most common cancer in women worldwide, with some 1.7m new cases diagnosed each year, which account for about 25% of all cancers in women and it is the fifth most common cause of death from cancer in women, with over 0.52m deaths each year.
Although over the past two decades there have been significant improvements in the detection and treatment of breast cancer, the disease remains the most common cancer in women worldwide, with some 1.7m new cases diagnosed each year, which account for about 25% of all cancers in women and it is the fifth most common cause of death from cancer in women, with over 0.52m deaths each year.
Game changer for breast cancer
Findings of CanRisk were reported in the January 2019 edition of Genetics in Medicine. Findings of a less comprehensive version of the device’s algorithm were published in the July 2016 edition of the same journal. Commenting on the 2019 study, Antonis Antoniou, Professor of Cancer Risk Prediction at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the two studies said: "This is the first time that anyone has combined so many elements into one breast cancer prediction tool. It could be a game changer for breast cancer and help doctors to tailor the care they provide depending on their patients' level of risk”.
When fully developed and approved, CanRisk will be well positioned to provide a cheap, rapid, non-invasive, highly sensitive and accurate diagnostic test to detect breast cancer early in people with diverse levels of risk. This might be expected to provide an alternative to the current gold standard population-based mammography screening and assist in making a significant dent in the vast and escalating global burden of the disease.
When fully developed and approved, CanRisk will be well positioned to provide a cheap, rapid, non-invasive, highly sensitive and accurate diagnostic test to detect breast cancer early in people with diverse levels of risk. This might be expected to provide an alternative to the current gold standard population-based mammography screening and assist in making a significant dent in the vast and escalating global burden of the disease.
In this Commentary
This Commentary describes the algorithm that drives CanRisk, which benefits from the increasing availability of vast and growing amounts of genomic and other personal data and significant advances in genomic sequencing technologies. The confluence of these two phenomena facilitates and enhances the quality and speed of data analysis and drives the development of new and innovative diagnostic and prognostic cancer technologies. The fact that CanRisk is based on UK data and its algorithm is available to researchers globally, presents a potential opportunity for medical research organizations in emerging regions of the world where the burden of breast cancer is increasing. The Commentary briefly describes the heterogeneous nature of breast cancer and highlights some of its complexities and risk factors. Originally perceived as a Western disease, breast cancer is growing rapidly in Asia and other regions of the world where it tends to be detected late and managed less effectively. Developed economies prevent and manage breast cancer through well-established population-based mammography screening programs. Because of the lack of resources, such screening programs are not widely available in low to middle income countries (LMIC). As the infotech and biotech revolutions merge expect authority in medicine to be transferred to Big Data algorithms such as CanRisk. This not only could provide an alternative to gold standard mammography screening, but also provide a cheap and effective device for use in developing nations where the burden of breast cancer is significant and increasing.
CanRisk: a world first
CanRisk, developed by members of the Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, UK, takes advantage of discoveries in both cancer genomics and epidemiology and aims to become a popular device used by primary care physicians, in consultation with their patients, to effectively assess patients’ diverse levels of risk of developing breast cancer. The device is predicated on an algorithm called BOADICEA (the Breast and Ovarian Analysis of Disease Incidence and Carrier Estimation Algorithm). This is the world’s first polygenic breast cancer risk model and the only one to-date, which is available to the international research community. Also, it is the first breast cancer risk model to incorporate pathology data and population-specific cancer incidences in risk calculations. The algorithm accounts for over 300 genetic risk factors, including BRCA1, [BReast CAncer gene] BRCA2, PALB2, CHEK2, and ATM, which are genes that have been found to impact a person’s chances of developing breast cancer. The device uses a Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) based on 313 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), [SNPs, pronounced ‘snips’, are the most common types of genetic variation in people. Each SNP represents a difference in a single DNA building block and is called a nucleotide] which explains 20% of breast cancer polygenic variance. CanRisk also includes a residual polygenic component, which accounts for other genetic/familial effects; known lifestyle/hormonal/reproductive risk factors and mammographic density [Dense breast tissue can make it harder to evaluate mammographic results and may also be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer].
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- Over the past decade MedTech valuations have outperformed the market without changing its business model
- The healthcare ecosystem is rapidly changing and MedTech is facing significant headwinds which require change
- MedTech’s future growth and value will be derived from data and smart analytics rather than manufacturing
- MedTech leaders will be required to leverage both physical and digital assets
Increasing MedTech’s future growth and value
Over the past decade, the medical device (MedTech) industry has enjoyed relatively high valuations and outperformed broader market indices without changing its manufacturing business model. Some MedTech leaders suggest that because the industry’s product offerings are essential, demand for them is increasing as populations grow and age, so unlike other industries, MedTech is immune to market swings and its asset value will continue to increase. As a consequence of this mindset, MedTech has been reluctant to change and slow to develop digitization strategies. Notwithstanding, digitization is an in-coming tide and positioned to impose a step-change on the industry. Future MedTech leaders will need to derive increased growth and value from digitization and emerging markets while improving the efficiency of their legacy manufacturing business and meeting quarterly earnings’ targets.
According to a 2018 report by the consulting firm Ernst & Young,“Stagnant R&D investment, low revenue growth and slow adoption of digital and data technologies suggest that entrenched MedTech companies are overly focused on short-term growth, even as the threat of large tech conglomerates entering the space grows larger, which, in addition to the changing global healthcare ecosystem, threatens future revenue growth".
According to a 2018 report by the consulting firm Ernst & Young,“Stagnant R&D investment, low revenue growth and slow adoption of digital and data technologies suggest that entrenched MedTech companies are overly focused on short-term growth, even as the threat of large tech conglomerates entering the space grows larger, which, in addition to the changing global healthcare ecosystem, threatens future revenue growth".
In this Commentary
This Commentary suggests that to create future growth and value, MedTech will have to (i) leverage data generated by medical devices, patients, payers and healthcare providers to develop clinical insights and trend analysis, which are expected to significantly improve patient outcomes and reduce costs, and (ii) substantially increase its share of the large and rapidly growing emerging markets. We suggest that there is a significant relationship between MedTech’s digital capacity and competences and its ability to increase its share of emerging Asian markets. But first we briefly describe the MedTech industry and its traditional markets and draw attention to some concerns, which include the relative low rates of top-line growth, stagnant R&D and share buybacks, M&A slowdown, giant tech companies entering the healthcare market, and challenges to recruit and retain millennials with natural digital skills and abilities.
The medical device industry
Concern # 1: Reduced growth rates
Population growth and aging
Concern # 2: Stagnate R&D spend and share buybacks
The medical device industry
The MedTech industry designs, manufactures and markets more than 0.5m different products to diagnose, monitor and treat patients. These include wearable devices such as insulin pumps and blood glucose monitors, implanted devices such as pacemakers and metal plates, and stationary devices that range from instruments to sophisticated scanning machines. Medical devices can be instrumental in helping healthcare providers achieve enhanced patient outcomes, reduced healthcare costs, improved efficiency and new ways of engaging and empowering patients. The principal business model employed by the industry is to manufacture innovative products relatively cheaply and sell them expensively in wealthy developed regions of the world; predominantly North America, Europe and Japan; which although representing only 13% of the world’s population account for 86% of the global MedTech market share. This premium pricing model is predicated upon doctors’ and health providers’ belief that MedTech products are of superior quality and safety. Notwithstanding, as eye-watering healthcare costs escalate, providers and regulators demand better evidence of clinical and economic value to justify the pricing and use of MedTech products. Over the next five years, the global MedTech industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of between 4% and 5.6% and reach global sales of some US$595bn by 2024.
Concern # 1: Reduced growth rates
Since the worse post-war recession ended in 2009, MedTech asset valuations have outperformed the market. Notwithstanding, of increasing concern is the slowdown of the industry’s revenue growth rates to single digits. The industry's aggregate revenue grew to US$379bn in 2017, an annual average industry growth rate of 4%, which now appears to be the new normal, and is significantly lower than the average annual growth rate of 15%, which the industry enjoyed between 2000-2007. The reduction in top-line growth rates is largely attributed to the world’s growing and aging population and the consequent growth in the incidence rates of chronic conditions, which increases the burden on overstretched healthcare budgets and intensifies pressure on MedTech’s to reduce their prices.
Population growth and aging
The aging population is driven by improvements in life expectancy. People are living longer and reaching older ages as fertility decreases and quality healthcare increases. People are having fewer children later in life. Some 8.5% of the global population (617m) have ages 65 and over. This is projected to rise to nearly 17% by 2050 (1.6bn). The number of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to more than double from 46m today to over 98m by 2060 – from 15% to 24% of the total US population. Around 18% of the UK population were aged 65 years or over in 2017, compared with 16% in 2007. This is projected to grow to 21% by 2027.
Concern # 2: Stagnate R&D spend and share buybacks
In addition to relatively low revenue growth rates, MedTech R&D spend has stagnated over the past decade despite the need for companies to develop new and innovative product offerings, which drive top-line sales. Over the same period, MedTech returned more cash to shareholders in the form of share buybacks and dividends (US$16.4bn) than it spent on R&D.
To the extent that share buybacks extract, rather than create value why are they popular? One suggestion is that because share incentive plans represent a significant portion of executive compensation, share buybacks make it easier for executives to meet earning-per-share (eps) targets by reducing the number of shares, in the 1970s, share buybacks were effectively banned in the US amid concerns that executives might use them to manipulate share prices. However, in 1982 the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lightened its definition of stock manipulation, and share buybacks became popular again.
To the extent that share buybacks extract, rather than create value why are they popular? One suggestion is that because share incentive plans represent a significant portion of executive compensation, share buybacks make it easier for executives to meet earning-per-share (eps) targets by reducing the number of shares, in the 1970s, share buybacks were effectively banned in the US amid concerns that executives might use them to manipulate share prices. However, in 1982 the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lightened its definition of stock manipulation, and share buybacks became popular again.
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- Experts have called for the worldwide eradication of cervical cancer, but this is not likely to happen for a long time
- Significant progress has been made to eliminate cervical cancer in developed countries
- The overwhelming burden of cervical cancer falls disproportionately on women in low- to middle-income countries (LMIC)
- LMIC have relatively low levels of awareness of cervical cancer, patchy prevent programs and limited treatment options
- Over 80% of cervical cancer cases and deaths occur in LMIC
- Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide
- In 2018 there were an estimated 680,000 new cases and 311,000 deaths from the disease worldwide
- Cervical cancer is caused by sexually acquired infection from high-risk strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV)
- The majority of women will be infected with HPV at some point in their life
- HPV also causes genital warts and cancers of the head and neck and is also linked to cancers of the anus, vulva, vagina, penis and oropharynx
- HPV vaccines protect against 70% of cervical cancers and about 90% of genital warts
- Regular screening is also recommended to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer
Challenges to eradicate cervical cancer globally
Cervical cancer is a killer disease, which only affects women. It affects women of all ages from schoolgirls to grandmothers, but it is significantly more prevalent between the ages of 30 and 45.
The cervix, also known as the neck of the womb, connects a woman's womb and her vagina.
Lancet study raises hope of eradicating cervical cancer
Research findings published in the June 2019 edition of The Lancet suggest that HPV vaccination, which has been available to adolescent girls in wealthy developed countries since 2007, has led to a dramatic reduction in the number of HPV infections, precancerous cervical lesions and anogenital warts and provides hope of eradicating cervical cancer. Marc Brisson, Professor in the Department of Social and Preventative Medicine, Laval University, Canada, who led the research - a meta-analysis of over 65 former studies covering 60m people - said: "We will see reductions [in cervical cancer] in women aged 20-30 within the next 10 years, and eradication of the disease [defined as <4 cases per 100,000] might be possible if sufficiently high vaccination coverage can be achieved and maintained". Over the past two decades, the incidence rates of cervical cancer in developed countries have fallen significantly, and between 1955 and 1992, the incidence rate of the disease decreased 70% in the US. These falls are attributed to effective nationwide screening.
Epidemiology
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide and second for women between 15 and 44. In 2018 there were an estimated 680,000 new cases and 311,000 deaths from the disease worldwide. The overwhelming majority of cases are caused by two specific strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV). HPV infection and early cervical cancer typically do not present noticeable symptoms, and cervical cancer may take 20 years or longer to develop after an HPV infection. The overwhelming global burden of the disease falls disproportionately on women in low- to middle income countries (LMIC). There is a significant and growing gap in the incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer between developed nations and LMIC. Despite international efforts, it seems unlikely that this gap will be narrowed in the medium term.
In this Commentary
This Commentary describes the spread of HPV, the vaccines developed to prevent infection from specific high-risk strains of the virus and recommended vaccination regimens. We describe the nature and significance of complementary screening programs and present evidence to suggest that women who fail to get screened are more likely to contract cervical cancer in later life than women who are screened. HPV vaccination programs are more prevalent in developed economies and are associated with a significant reduction in the incidence rates of cervical cancer. This suggests that the battle to eliminate cervical cancer is being won in some wealthy developed nations. Australia is positioned to become the first country in the world to eliminate cervical cancer. Despite substantial global efforts to reduce the incidence rates of cervical cancer, the gap in preventing, diagnosing and treating the disease between wealthy nations and LMIC is significant and growing. We conclude by suggesting that to eradicate cervical cancer, screening and prevention programs must be linked to easily accessible and effective treatment.
The spread of HPV
Over 70% of cervical cancer is caused by two high-risk strains of HPV. Most women will contract HPV at some stage during their life, but this usually clears-up on its own without the need for any treatment. HPV is most commonly spread during vaginal, anal or oral sex. The virus can be passed even when an infected person has no signs or symptoms. If you are sexually active you can get HPV, even if you only have sex with one partner. Notwithstanding, the risk increases with the number of new sexual partners and their sexual histories. You also can develop symptoms years after you have sex with someone who is infected. This makes it hard to know when you first became infected.
HPV vaccines
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved three vaccines, which prevent infection with disease-causing HPV types. These are Gardasil, Gardasil 9 and Cervarix. All three vaccines prevent infection with HPV types 16 and 18 in women who have not already been infected by these types. These are two high-risk HPV’s that cause about 70% of cervical cancers and an even higher percentage of some of the other HPV-caused cancers. Gardasil also prevents infection with HPV types 6 and 11, which cause 90% of genital warts. Gardasil 9 prevents infection with the same four HPV types, plus five additional cancer-causing types.
About 79m Americans are currently infected with HPV, with roughly 14m people becoming newly infected in the US each year. In the UK, HPV is present in one in three people and 90% of individuals will come into contact with some form of the virus in their lifetime. About 80% of sexually active people are infected with HPV at some point in their lives, but most people never know they have the virus. Whitfield Growdon, a surgical oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and professor at the Harvard University Medical School describes the HPV vaccination as, “one of the most meaningful interventions for reducing cervical cancer”; see video below.
About 79m Americans are currently infected with HPV, with roughly 14m people becoming newly infected in the US each year. In the UK, HPV is present in one in three people and 90% of individuals will come into contact with some form of the virus in their lifetime. About 80% of sexually active people are infected with HPV at some point in their lives, but most people never know they have the virus. Whitfield Growdon, a surgical oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and professor at the Harvard University Medical School describes the HPV vaccination as, “one of the most meaningful interventions for reducing cervical cancer”; see video below.
Who should get vaccinated?
All girls and boys aged between 11 and 12 should get the HPV vaccination. Every year in the US, over 13,000 males contract cancers caused by HPV. Catch-up HPV vaccines are recommended for girls and women through the age of 26, and for boys and men through the age of 21, if they did not get vaccinated when they were younger. HPV vaccination is also recommended for the following people, if they did not get vaccinated when they were younger: (i) young men who have sex with men through the age of 26, (ii) young adults who are transgender through the age of 26 and (iii) young adults with certain immunocompromising conditions (including HIV) through the age of 26.
Early cervical cancer is asymptomatic
Because early cervical cancer is asymptomatic, it is important for women to have regular Papanicolaou (Pap) smears - also called Pap tests - to detect any precancerous changes in the cervix that might lead to cancer. This is in addition to the HPV vaccination. In England women are invited to have Pap smears every three years between the ages of 25 and 49, when rates of cervical cancer are at their peak, and every five years between 50 and 65. Other international screening guidelines recommend that women aged 21 to 29 have a Pap smear every three years. Women aged 30 to 65 are advised to continue having a Pap test every three years, or every five years if they also combine it with an HPV DNA test. Women over 65 can stop testing if they have had three consecutive normal Pap tests, or two HPV DNA and Pap tests with no abnormal results.
The HPV DNA test determines the most likely cause of cervical cancer by looking for pieces of DNA in cervical cells and is recommended for women over 30 and not for women under 30. This is because women in their 20s tend to be more sexually active and therefore are more likely (than older women) to have an HPV infection that will go away on its own. Results of an HPV DNA test carried out on a woman in her 20s is not as significant as in and older woman and also may be confusing. The HPV DNA test can also be used in women who have slightly abnormal Pap test results to find out if they might need more testing or treatment.
What is a Pap smear test?
Diagnostic tests for cervical cancer
The expansion of screening programs for cervical cancer in LMIC is only part of the answer to closing the gap with developed nations and eradicating cervical cancer globally. It is imperative that screening is linked to increased access to effective treatment for women with cervical cancer, particularly in its early stages when it is still curable. In LMIC there is often not only reduced access to preventive HPV vaccines and screening, but limited access to treatment and trained personnel. Notwithstanding, there is evidence to suggest that, in LMIC less-invasive and less–resource-intensive treatment options can be effective and are increasingly being made available.
The HPV DNA test determines the most likely cause of cervical cancer by looking for pieces of DNA in cervical cells and is recommended for women over 30 and not for women under 30. This is because women in their 20s tend to be more sexually active and therefore are more likely (than older women) to have an HPV infection that will go away on its own. Results of an HPV DNA test carried out on a woman in her 20s is not as significant as in and older woman and also may be confusing. The HPV DNA test can also be used in women who have slightly abnormal Pap test results to find out if they might need more testing or treatment.
The Pap smear/test
The Pap smear or Pap test is a method of cervical screening used to detect potentially precancerous and cancerous processes in your cervix. During the routine procedure, cells from your cervix are gently scraped away and then examined for abnormal growth. Abnormal findings are often followed-up by more sensitive diagnostic procedures and if warranted, by interventions that aim to prevent progression to cervical cancer. Detecting cervical cancer early with a Pap smear significantly increases the chances of a cure. A Pap smear can also detect changes in your cervical cells, which suggest you might develop cancer in the future. In the two videos below Growdon describes the Pap smear and other tests for diagnosing cervical cancer.
What is a Pap smear test?
Diagnostic tests for cervical cancer
Women failing to have the Pap test are 6-times at greater risk of cervical cancer
There is evidence to suggest that women over 50 who fail to have a regular Pap smear have a much higher risk of developing cervical cancer compared with other women the same age who have a history of regular screening. Research carried out by Cancer Research UK and reported in 2014 investigated the utility of regular cervical cancer screening after 50, and whether 64 was an appropriate age to stop screening and concluded “yes” and “yes”. The study compared the screening history of 1,341 women between 65 and 83 in England and Wales who were diagnosed with cervical cancer over a five-year period, with 2,646 women of the same age without the disease. Findings suggest that women who did not attend screening tests were six times more likely to develop cervical cancer between 65 and 83 compared with women that did.
Australian the first country to eradicate cervical cancer
Australia is well positioned to become the first country in the world to eradicate cervical cancer. This is largely due to national vaccination and screening programs, which could see the disease effectively eliminated as a public health issue within the next two decades. In 2007, Australia launched a national publicly-funded school immunisation program to reduce HPV, which complemented a national cervical cancer screening program that was launched in the 1990s. These have been shown to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer and significantly increase early diagnosis when the disease is curable.
A research paper about the Australian initiative published in the January 2019 edition of The Lancet Public Health concludes that, “the annual incidence of cervical cancer in Australia is likely to decrease to fewer than six new cases per 100 000 women by 2020 (range 2018–22) and to fewer than four cases per 100 000 women by 2028 (2021–35). The annual incidence of cervical cancer could decrease to one new case per 100 000 by 2066 (2054–77) if the existing HPV-based screening program continues in cohorts who are offered the nonavalent vaccine”; [a nonavalent vaccine works by stimulating an immune response against nine different antigens, such as nine different viruses or other microorganisms]. According to Suzanne Garland, Professor and Clinical Director of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, who led the research, “within 40 years the number of new cases of cervical cancer [in Australia] is projected to drop to just a few”.
A research paper about the Australian initiative published in the January 2019 edition of The Lancet Public Health concludes that, “the annual incidence of cervical cancer in Australia is likely to decrease to fewer than six new cases per 100 000 women by 2020 (range 2018–22) and to fewer than four cases per 100 000 women by 2028 (2021–35). The annual incidence of cervical cancer could decrease to one new case per 100 000 by 2066 (2054–77) if the existing HPV-based screening program continues in cohorts who are offered the nonavalent vaccine”; [a nonavalent vaccine works by stimulating an immune response against nine different antigens, such as nine different viruses or other microorganisms]. According to Suzanne Garland, Professor and Clinical Director of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, who led the research, “within 40 years the number of new cases of cervical cancer [in Australia] is projected to drop to just a few”.
The two worlds of cervical cancer
Global efforts to reduce the incidence rates of cervical cancer have focused on HPV vaccination and the Pap test. Although experts are optimistic about eliminating cervical cancer in developed nations, which have advanced healthcare systems and extensive HPV vaccination, screening and treatment programs, they are significantly less sanguine about eradicating the disease in LMIC where there are relatively low levels of awareness of cervical cancer, a dearth of preventative strategies, limited expertise and a narrow band of treatment options. This results in the disease being identified late when it is at an advanced stage, which leads to higher rates of morbidity and death. Indeed, 85% of all cases and cervical cancer deaths occur in LMIC, where the death rate is 18 times higher than in wealthy nations.
Cervical cancer a challenge for LMIC
The gap in preventing, diagnosing and treating cervical cancer between wealthy nations and LMIC is described in a paper published in the November 2017 edition of Gynecologic Oncology Reports and suggests that, “Developing countries continue to bear a disproportionate percentage of the global cervical cancer burden. Investigations into the growing gap in incidence and mortality between developed nations and LMIC have cited persistent financial, infrastructural and educational limitations as key drivers. Pervasive lack of access to both preventative and definitive care has left a substantial portion of cervical cancer patients with minimal options for disease management”.
WHO strategy to eliminate cervical cancer
Recognising this disparity, in 2018, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a call to action for the eradication of cervical cancer as a public health problem. In January 2019, the Executive Board of the WHO requested the Director General to develop a draft strategy to accelerate cervical cancer elimination, with clear targets for the period 2020 - 2030.
Vaccination and screening must be linked to effective therapies
The expansion of screening programs for cervical cancer in LMIC is only part of the answer to closing the gap with developed nations and eradicating cervical cancer globally. It is imperative that screening is linked to increased access to effective treatment for women with cervical cancer, particularly in its early stages when it is still curable. In LMIC there is often not only reduced access to preventive HPV vaccines and screening, but limited access to treatment and trained personnel. Notwithstanding, there is evidence to suggest that, in LMIC less-invasive and less–resource-intensive treatment options can be effective and are increasingly being made available.
Late presentation of cervical cancer in LMIC
Women from LMIC generally seek treatment for cervical cancer only after the presentation of symptoms when the disease is advanced and challenging to treat. Also, they often lack awareness of the disease and ways to prevent it. Further, in some regions of the world, cultural norms and myths about cervical cancer pose additional barriers to prevention. Despite such obstacles, the disease can be prevented at low cost by healthcare providers employing relatively simple techniques to screen women for precancerous conditions and treat abnormal tissue early. Among the most promising low cost and low-tech screening alternatives to the Pap smear, is visual screening, which only requires either simple vinegar or iodine solutions and the eye of a trained healthcare provider to spot abnormal tissue.
Screening linked to effective therapy
Increasingly, these simply tests are being linked with effective treatment. Increasingly, in LMIC relatively cheap and simple therapies are being used to either destroy or remove abnormal cervical tissue, depending on the severity, location and size of the affected area. Two such procedures include cryotherapy and loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP). The former uses extremely low temperatures to destroy abnormal tissue and requires no electricity. The latter involves using a thin wire to remove lesions in the affected area. While this procedure requires more medical equipment than cryotherapy, it allows tissue to be removed for analysis, reducing the possibility that advanced cancer will go unnoticed. Although many LMIC have had cervical cancer prevention programs and simple treatment strategies in place for some time, some have failed to reduce death rates of the disease.
Radiotherapy and cervical cancer in LMIC
Research findings published in the May 2019 online edition of The Lancet Oncology suggest that the availability of radiotherapy in LMIC (where gross national income is <US$12,000 a year) would generate millions of productive life years and billions of dollars in economic benefits for the patients' families and communities. The study suggests that implementing a 20-year strategy for radiotherapy to treat cervical cancer in LMIC between 2015 and 2035, in parallel with an HPV vaccination program, would save the lives of some 9.4m women and provide a net benefit to economies of US$151.5bn as a direct result of women living longer and more productive lives.
According to Danielle Rodin, lead author and Radiation Oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University of Toronto, Canada, "Vaccination is hugely important, but we can't neglect the millions of women who are contracting cervical cancer and dying in pain without access to treatment. These are women who have curable cancers: even advanced cervical cancer can be cured with radiotherapy. The possibility exists to make this treatment universally available". Radiation therapy makes small breaks in the DNA inside cells. This stops cancer cells from growing and dividing and causes them to die. Unlike cisplatin therapy, [an anti-cancer ("antineoplastic" or "cytotoxic") chemotherapy], which usually exposes the whole body to cancer-fighting drugs, radiation therapy is usually a local treatment.
According to Danielle Rodin, lead author and Radiation Oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University of Toronto, Canada, "Vaccination is hugely important, but we can't neglect the millions of women who are contracting cervical cancer and dying in pain without access to treatment. These are women who have curable cancers: even advanced cervical cancer can be cured with radiotherapy. The possibility exists to make this treatment universally available". Radiation therapy makes small breaks in the DNA inside cells. This stops cancer cells from growing and dividing and causes them to die. Unlike cisplatin therapy, [an anti-cancer ("antineoplastic" or "cytotoxic") chemotherapy], which usually exposes the whole body to cancer-fighting drugs, radiation therapy is usually a local treatment.
According to the 2019 Lancet Oncology study, HPV vaccination would result in a 3.9% reduction in cervical cancer incidence over the 20-year study period; assuming a best-case scenario of vaccinating every 12-year-old girl in the world starting in 2014. By 2072, when the first vaccinated cohort reaches 70, there would be a 22.9% reduction in incidence, still leaving 41.6m in need for therapy over that time period.
“We know that when administered together (chemoradiation) you can give lower doses of both and get a better kill-rate on the tumour. This is now the backbone of cervical cancer therapy”, says Growdon; see video below.
“We know that when administered together (chemoradiation) you can give lower doses of both and get a better kill-rate on the tumour. This is now the backbone of cervical cancer therapy”, says Growdon; see video below.
Abu Dhabi’s endeavours to reduce cervical cancer
For some years, experts have discussed religious and cultural barriers to cervical cancer screening and drew attention to the relatively low levels of cervical cancer awareness and screening for women in Middle Eastern Arab countries. Meta-analysis of cervical cancer studies conducted in Arab countries between January 2002 and January 2017 and published in the December 2017 edition of Nursing & Health Sciences, suggest that in Arab speaking countries there tends to be, “low knowledge of and perceptions about cervical screening among Arab women, the majority of whom are Muslim. Factors affecting the uptake of cervical cancer screening practices were the absence of organized, systematic programs, low screening knowledge among women, healthcare professionals' attitudes toward screening, pain and embarrassment, stigma, and sociocultural beliefs”.
The success of HPV vaccination in Abu Dhabi and the UAE
Notwithstanding, there are signs that this is changing. Leading such changes is Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Over a decade ago, a mandatory free HPV vaccination program for school girls was introduced by Abu Dhabi’s Ministry of Health and Prevention and extended in 2013 to include women between 18 and 26. Also, the Ministry recommends that woman aged 25 to 65 years get a Pap smear every three to five years. Since 2018, HPV vaccinations have been provided free and compulsory for all school girls in Dubai and the Northern Emirates following a campaign to raise awareness.
Although the UAE is among the few countries to have relatively low incidence rates of cervical cancer, the disease still ranks as the third most frequent cancer among women in the UAE and the third most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44. Estimates suggest that every year, 93 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 28 die from the disease in the UAE. Although Abu Dhabi is successfully leading the fight against cervical cancer and provides a roadmap for others to follow, the incidence of cervical cancer in the Middle East generally is expected to more than double by 2035 (>33,000 cases) and be responsible for more than 18,000 deaths. In some countries including Morocco and Saudi Arabia, low societal awareness and relatively low levels of screening results in about one in four women with HPV.
Although the UAE is among the few countries to have relatively low incidence rates of cervical cancer, the disease still ranks as the third most frequent cancer among women in the UAE and the third most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44. Estimates suggest that every year, 93 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 28 die from the disease in the UAE. Although Abu Dhabi is successfully leading the fight against cervical cancer and provides a roadmap for others to follow, the incidence of cervical cancer in the Middle East generally is expected to more than double by 2035 (>33,000 cases) and be responsible for more than 18,000 deaths. In some countries including Morocco and Saudi Arabia, low societal awareness and relatively low levels of screening results in about one in four women with HPV.
Takeaways
As cervical cancer screening and prevention programs have been growing and extending their reach, so increases the need to provide access to effective treatment. Despite growing awareness of the disease and global efforts to increase availability of appropriate resources, cervical cancer remains prevalent particularly in LMIC where effective treatment has not become widespread. In many LMIC, the default option is often to do nothing, which results in certain death. Researchers and policy makers should consider focusing their activities on how to best to reconcile the use of existing resources with the expected impact on the quantity and quality of life. Although gaps in oncological resources and barriers to treatment still exist, the good news is that there is increased political will and international attention to improve access to safe and effective treatment of cervical cancer. Notwithstanding, eradicating the disease globally appears to be more of a theoretical possibility than a medium term reality.
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- AstraZeneca has turned traditional biopharma R&D on its head and is targeting early stage cancer
- This strategy benefits from some of AstraZeneca’s R&D endeavours
- But the strategy faces strong headwinds, which include significant technological and market challenges and substantial Competition from at least two unicorns
AstraZeneca’s strategy to target early cancer
Will José Baselga’s gamble pay off?
Baselga is AstraZeneca's new cancer research chief who has turned traditional biopharmaceutical drug development on its head by announcing AstraZeneca’s intention to target early- rather than late-stage cancer. “We need to spend our resources on those places where we can cure more people and that’s in early disease”, says Baselga, who knows that early detection can significantly improve patient survival rates and quality of life, as well as substantially reducing the cost and complexity of cancer treatment. Baselga also must know his strategy is high risk. Will it work?
Baselga is AstraZeneca's new cancer research chief who has turned traditional biopharmaceutical drug development on its head by announcing AstraZeneca’s intention to target early- rather than late-stage cancer. “We need to spend our resources on those places where we can cure more people and that’s in early disease”, says Baselga, who knows that early detection can significantly improve patient survival rates and quality of life, as well as substantially reducing the cost and complexity of cancer treatment. Baselga also must know his strategy is high risk. Will it work?
In this Commentary
In this Commentary we discuss the drivers and headwinds of AstraZeneca’s strategy to increase its R&D focus on early stage cancer. But first we briefly describe cancer, the UK’s situation with regard to the disease and explain why big pharma targets advanced cancers. Also, we provide a brief description of AstraZeneca’s recent history.
What is cancer?
Cancer occurs when a normal cell’s DNA changes and multiplies to form a mass of abnormal cells, which we refer to as a tumour. If not controlled and managed appropriately the tumour can spread and invade other tissues and organs. In the video below Whitfield Growdon, a surgical oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston US, and a Professor at the Harvard University Medical School explains.
The UK’s record of cancer treatment
In the UK cancer survival rates vary between types of the disease, ranging from 98% for testicular cancer to just 1% for pancreatic cancer. Although the UK’s cancer survival rates lag those of other European countries, the nation’s overall cancer survival rate is improving. Several cancers are showing significant increases in five-year survival, including breast (80% to 86%), prostate (82% to 89%), rectum (55% to 63%) and colon (52% to 60%). Many of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the UK have ten-year survival of 50% or more. With regard to cancer spending, compared with most Western European countries, including France, Denmark, Austria and Ireland, the UK spends less on cancer per person, with Germany spending almost twice as much per head.
Why big pharma targets advanced cancers?
Most cancers are detected late when symptoms have manifested themselves, which renders treatment less effective and more costly. When cancer is caught early, as in some cases of breast and prostate cancer, tumours tend to be removed surgically or killed by chemoradiation therapy (CRT) and this, for many people, provides a “cure”, although in some cases the cancer returns.
Studies in developed economies suggest that treatment costs for early-diagnosed cancer patients are two to four times less expensive than treating those diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer. Notwithstanding, there are physical, psychological, socio-economic and technical challenges to accessing early cancer diagnosis and these conspire to delay cancer detection. Thus, big pharma companies have traditionally aimed their new cancer drugs at patients with advanced forms of the disease. This provides pharma companies access to patients who are willing to try unproven therapies, which significantly helps in their clinical studies. And further, big pharma is advantaged because regulators tend to support medicines that slow tumour growth and prolong life, albeit by a few months.
Studies in developed economies suggest that treatment costs for early-diagnosed cancer patients are two to four times less expensive than treating those diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer. Notwithstanding, there are physical, psychological, socio-economic and technical challenges to accessing early cancer diagnosis and these conspire to delay cancer detection. Thus, big pharma companies have traditionally aimed their new cancer drugs at patients with advanced forms of the disease. This provides pharma companies access to patients who are willing to try unproven therapies, which significantly helps in their clinical studies. And further, big pharma is advantaged because regulators tend to support medicines that slow tumour growth and prolong life, albeit by a few months.
Imfinzi: the only immunotherapy to demonstrate survival at three years
A good example of this is AstraZeneca’s immunotherapy drug called Imfinzi (durvalumab) used in unresectable stage-III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which has not spread outside the chest and has responded to initial chemoradiation therapy. Imfinzi works by binding to and blocking a protein called PD-L1, which acts to disguise cancer cells from your immune system. Imfinzi removes the disguise so that your immune system is better able to find and attack your cancer cells.
Findings presented at the June 2019 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), build on a clinical study of Imfinzi reported in the September 2018 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine, and suggest that Imfinzi is the only immunotherapy to demonstrate survival at three years in unresectable stage-III NSCLC. AstraZeneca has begun a phase-3 clinical study of the PD-L1 inhibitor protein in stage II NSCLC patients.
Findings presented at the June 2019 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), build on a clinical study of Imfinzi reported in the September 2018 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine, and suggest that Imfinzi is the only immunotherapy to demonstrate survival at three years in unresectable stage-III NSCLC. AstraZeneca has begun a phase-3 clinical study of the PD-L1 inhibitor protein in stage II NSCLC patients.
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- People are living longer, the prevalence of age-related degenerative disc disease is increasing and sufferers are more and more turning to spinal implant surgery as a solution
- As this significantly raises the burden on over-stretched healthcare systems, so is spine surgery increasingly becoming a key target for cost reduction within healthcare systems
- This intensifies the pressure on manufacturers to innovate and make spinal implants more cost effective
Can 3D printing and the use of new alloys reduce the high costs of producing and marketing spinal implants?
On January 8th 2019 surgeons at Joseph Spine, a specialist surgery centre based in Tampa Bay Florida, were the first in the US to implant a 3D printed interbody fusion device, which was produced by Osseus Fusion Systems. The company uses its proprietary 3D printing technology, also known as additive manufacturing, to build spinal implants from titanium material that is optimized for bone fusion and biological fixation. In August 2018, a suite of Osseus’s devices received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a range of heights and lordotic (inward spinal curvature) angles, which make them adaptable for a variety of patient anatomies. The interbody fusion devices work by being packed with biomaterials and bone grafts and inserted in between two vertebrae, where they fuse with the spine and work to prevent back pain.
In this Commentary
This Commentary explores whether 3D printing and the use of new alloys could be an appropriate strategy to help spine companies reduce their production and sales costs and enhance their market positions. Our suggestions here complement a strategy, described in a previous Commentary, for MedTech companies to develop and implement digital strategies to enhance their go-to-market activities, strengthen the value propositions of products and services and streamline internal processes. The reasons spine companies might consider both strategies are because spinal implant markets, which are segmented by type of surgery, product and geography, are experiencing significant competitive, regulatory, pricing and technological challenges as well as mounting consumer pressure for improved outcomes; and the business model, which served as an accelerator of their financial success over the past decade is unlikely to be effective over the next decade.
3D printing
3D printing is a process, which creates a three-dimensional (3D) object by building successive layers of raw material. Each new layer is attached to the previous one until the object is complete. In the healthcare industry, 3D printing is used in a wide range of applications, such as producing dental crowns and bridges; developing prototypes; and manufacturing surgical guides and hearing aid devices. Increasingly, 3D printing is being used for the production of spinal implants.
Spine surgery increasing significantly
An estimated US$90bn is spent each year in the US on the diagnosis and management of low back pain (LBP). LBP, caused by age related degenerative disc disease, is one of the most common and widespread public health challenges facing the industrialized world. It is estimated that the condition affects over 80% of the global population and inflicts a heavy and escalating burden on healthcare systems. Also, LBP affects economies more generally in terms of lost production due to absenteeism, early retirement and the psychosocial impact caused by the withdrawal of otherwise active people from their daily activities. According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, more than 65m Americans suffer from LBP annually and the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch suggests that by the age of fifty, 85% of the US population is likely to show evidence of disc degeneration. It is estimated that 10% of all cases of LBP will develop chronic back pain, which is one of the main reasons for people to seek surgical solutions and this significantly raises the burden on over-stretched healthcare systems.
Findings of a study published in the March 2019 edition of Spine, entitled, “Trends in Lumbar Fusion Procedure Rates and Associated Hospital Costs for Degenerative Spinal Diseases in the United States 2004 to 2015”, report that the rate of elective lumbar fusion surgeries in the US has increased substantially over the past decade. Such trends are indicative of most advanced industrial societies, which are changing and ageing, primarily driven by improvements in life expectancy and by a decrease in fertility. This results in people living longer, reaching older ages and having fewer children later in life. Over the next decade, these market drivers are expected to make spine surgery a key target for cost reduction within healthcare systems and this, in turn, is likely to increase pressure on manufacturers of spinal implants to make spine surgery more cost effective.
Findings of a study published in the March 2019 edition of Spine, entitled, “Trends in Lumbar Fusion Procedure Rates and Associated Hospital Costs for Degenerative Spinal Diseases in the United States 2004 to 2015”, report that the rate of elective lumbar fusion surgeries in the US has increased substantially over the past decade. Such trends are indicative of most advanced industrial societies, which are changing and ageing, primarily driven by improvements in life expectancy and by a decrease in fertility. This results in people living longer, reaching older ages and having fewer children later in life. Over the next decade, these market drivers are expected to make spine surgery a key target for cost reduction within healthcare systems and this, in turn, is likely to increase pressure on manufacturers of spinal implants to make spine surgery more cost effective.
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- Two Boston Consulting Group studies say MedTech innovation productivity is in decline
- A history of strong growth and healthy margins render MedTechs slow to change their outdated business model
- The MedTech sector is rapidly shifting from production to solutions
- The dynamics of MedTechs' customer supply chain is changing significantly and MedTech manufacturers are no longer in control
- Consolidation among buyers - hospitals and group purchasing organisations (GPO) - adds downward pressure on prices
- Independent distributors have assumed marketing, customer support and education roles
- GPOs have raised their fees and are struggling to change their model based on aggregate volume
- Digitally savvy new entrants are reinventing how healthcare providers and suppliers work together
- Amazon’s B2B Health Services is positioned to disrupt MedTechs, GPOs and distributors
- MedTech manufacturers need to enhance their digitization strategies to remain relevant
MedTech must digitize to remain relevant
MedTech companies need to accelerate their digital strategies and integrate digital solutions into their principal business plans if they are to maintain and enhance their position in an increasingly solution orientated healthcare ecosystem. With growing focus on healthcare value and outcomes and continued cost pressures, MedTechs need to get the most from their current portfolios to drive profitability. An area where significant improvements might be made in the short term is in MedTechs' customer facing supply chains. To achieve this, manufacturing companies need to make digitization and advanced analytics a central plank of their strategies.
In this Commentary
This Commentary describes the necessity for MedTechs to enhance their digitization strategies, which are increasingly relevant, as MedTech companies shift from production to solution orientated entities. In a previous Commentary we argued that MedTechs history of strong growth and healthy margins make them slow to change and implement digital strategies. Here we suggest that the business model, which served to accelerate MedTechs' financial success over the past decade is becoming less effective and device manufacturers need not only to generate value from the sale of their product offerings, but also from data their devices produce so they can create high quality affordable healthcare solutions. This we argue will require MedTechs developing innovative strategies associated with significantly increasing their use of digital technology to enhance go-to-market activities, strengthen value propositions of products and services and streamline internal processes.
MedTechs operate with an outdated commercial model
Our discussion of digitization draws on two international benchmarking studies undertaken by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The first, published in July 2013 and entitled, “Fixing the MedTech Commercial Model: Still Deploying ‘Milkmen’ in a Megastore World” suggests that the high gross margins that MedTech companies enjoy, particularly in the US, hide unsustainable high costs and underdeveloped commercial skills. According to BCG the average MedTech company’s selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses - measured as a percentage of the cost of goods sold - is 3.5 times higher than the average comparable technology company. The study concludes that MedTechs' outdated business model, dubbed the “milkman”, will have to change for companies to survive.
BCG’s follow-up 2017 study
In 2017 BCG published a follow-up study entitled, “Moving Beyond the ‘Milkman’ Model in MedTech”, which surveyed some 6,000 employees and benchmarked financial and organizational data from 100 MedTech companies worldwide, including nine of the 10 largest companies in the sector. The study suggested that although there continued to be downward pressure on device prices, changes in buying processes and shrinking gross margins, few MedTech companies “have taken the bold moves required to create a leaner commercial model”.
According to the BCG’s 2017 study, “Overall, innovation productivity [in the MedTech sector] is in decline. In some product categories, low-cost competitors - including those from emerging markets - have grown rapidly and taken market share from established competitors. At the same time, purchasers are becoming more insistent on real-world evidence that premium medical devices create value by improving patient outcomes and reducing the total costs of care”. The growth and spread of value-based healthcare has shifted the basis of competition beyond products, “toward more comprehensive value propositions and solutions that address the entire patient pathway”. In this environment, MedTechs have no choice but to use data to deliver improved outcomes and a better customer experience for patients, healthcare providers and payers.
According to the BCG’s 2017 study, “Overall, innovation productivity [in the MedTech sector] is in decline. In some product categories, low-cost competitors - including those from emerging markets - have grown rapidly and taken market share from established competitors. At the same time, purchasers are becoming more insistent on real-world evidence that premium medical devices create value by improving patient outcomes and reducing the total costs of care”. The growth and spread of value-based healthcare has shifted the basis of competition beyond products, “toward more comprehensive value propositions and solutions that address the entire patient pathway”. In this environment, MedTechs have no choice but to use data to deliver improved outcomes and a better customer experience for patients, healthcare providers and payers.
MedTech distributors increasing their market power and influence
Although supply chain costs tend to be MedTechs' second-highest expense after labour, companies have been reluctant to employ digital strategies to reduce expenses and increase efficiencies. As a consequence, their customer supply chains tend to be labour intensive relationship driven with little effective sharing of data between different territories and sales teams. Customer relations are disaggregated with only modest attention paid to patients and payors and insufficient emphasis on systematically collecting, storing and analysing data to support value outcomes.
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