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By raising your hand,

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how many of you know
at least one person on the screen?

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Wow, it's almost a full house.

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It's true, they are very famous
in their fields.

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And do you know what
all of them have in common?

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They all died of pancreatic cancer.

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However, although it's very,
very sad this news,

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it's also thanks to their personal stories

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that we have raised awareness
of how lethal this disease can be.

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It's become the third cause
of cancer deaths,

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and only eight percent of the patients
will survive beyond five years.

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That's a very tiny number,

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especially if you compare it
with breast cancer,

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where the survival rate
is almost 90 percent.

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So it doesn't really come as a surprise

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that being diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer

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means facing an almost
certain death sentence.

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What's shocking, though,
is that in the last 40 years,

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this number hasn't changed a bit,

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while much more progress has been made

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with other types of tumors.

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So how can we make pancreatic cancer
treatment more effective?

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As a biomedical entrepreneur,

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I like to work on problems
that seem impossible,

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understanding their limitations

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and trying to find new,
innovative solutions

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that can change their outcome.

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The first piece of bad news
with pancreatic cancer

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is that your pancreas is in the middle
of your belly, literally.

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It's depicted in orange on the screen.

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But you can barely see it

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until I remove all the other
organs in front.

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It's also surrounded
by many other vital organs,

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like the liver, the stomach,
the bile duct.

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And the ability of the tumor
to grow into those organs

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is the reason why pancreatic cancer

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is one of the most painful tumor types.

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The hard-to-reach location
also prevents the doctor

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from surgically removing it,

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as is routinely done
for breast cancer, for example.

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So all of these reasons leave
chemotherapy as the only option

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for the pancreatic cancer patient.

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This brings us to the second
piece of bad news.

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Pancreatic cancer tumors have
very few blood vessels.

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Why should we care
about the blood vessel of a tumor?

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Let's think for a second
how chemotherapy works.

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The drug is injected in the vein

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and it navigates throughout the body
until it reaches the tumor site.

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It's like driving on a highway,
trying to reach a destination.

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But what if your destination
doesn't have an exit on the highway?

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You will never get there.

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And that's exactly the same problem

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for chemotherapy and pancreatic cancer.

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The drugs navigate
throughout all of your body.

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They will reach healthy organs,

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resulting in high toxic effect
for the patients overall,

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but very little will go to the tumor.

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Therefore, the efficacy is very limited.

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To me, it seems very counterintuitive
to have a whole-body treatment

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to target a specific organ.

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However, in the last 40 years,

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a lot of money, research
and effort have gone towards

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finding new, powerful drugs
to treat pancreatic cancer,

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but nothing has been done
in changing the way

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we deliver them to the patient.

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So after two pieces of bad news,

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I'm going to give you
good news, hopefully.

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With a collaborator at MIT

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and the Massachusetts
General Hospital in Boston,

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we have revolutionized
the way we treat cancer

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by making localized
drug delivery a reality.

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We are basically parachuting you
on top of your destination,

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avoiding your having to drive
all around the highway.

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We have embedded the drug
into devices that look like this one.

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They are flexible enough
that they can be folded

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to fit into the catheter,

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so the doctor can implant it
directly on top of the tumor

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with minimally invasive surgery.

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But they are solid enough
that once they are positioned

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on top of the tumor,

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they will act as a cage.

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They will actually
physically prevent the tumor

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from entering other organs,

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controlling the metastasis.

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The devices are also biodegradable.

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That means that once in the body,

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they start dissolving,

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delivering the drug only locally,
slowly and more effectively

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than what is done with the current
whole-body treatment.

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In pre-clinical study,
we have demonstrated

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that this localized approach

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is able to improve by 12 times
the response to treatment.

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So we took a drug that is already known

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and by just delivering it locally
where it's needed the most,

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we allow a response
that is 12 times more powerful,

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reducing the systemic toxic effect.

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We are working relentlessly to bring
this technology to the next level.

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We are finalizing the pre-clinical testing

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and the animal model required
prior to asking the FDA for approval

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for clinical trials.

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Currently, the majority of patients
will die from pancreatic cancer.

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We are hoping that one day,

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we can reduce their pain,
extend their life

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and potentially make pancreatic cancer

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a curable disease.

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By rethinking the way we deliver the drug,

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we don't only make it
more powerful and less toxic,

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we are also opening the door
to finding new innovative solutions

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for almost all other impossible problems

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in pancreatic cancer patients and beyond.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)