Manhattan Scientifics (MHTX) has executed an agreement to collaborate with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre (MDACC) to advance, demonstrate and validate a breakthrough technology developed by Edward R Flynn, PhD, for the very early detection of cancer. Dr Flynn is the founder and chief scientist of MHTX’s subsidiary, Senior Scientific LLC.

Senior Scientific is seeking to commercialize this patented non-invasive technology using ultra-sensitive magnetic detectors to locate, identify and measure tumors thousands of times smaller than detectable using current technologies.

Manhattan Scientifics, Inc., together with the National Institute of Health, financed the development and construction of the new medical instrument that may become the next important evolutionary step in cancer diagnostics, which we believe will provide a dramatic advance beyond PET, MRI, CT and X-ray.

Senior Scientific selected MD Anderson to test the new system because of MD Anderson’s advanced cancer research facilities and the shared goal of bringing Senior Scientific’s technology from "bench to bedside.”

MD Anderson is collaborating with Senior Scientific to test the technology because of its potential to avoid false positives and provide the ability to detect cancer years earlier than other approaches. In many cancers, early detection is the key to cure.

Senior Scientific’s technology uses iron oxide nanoparticles and biomarkers to target specific cancer cell receptors. The instrument is used to rapidly magnetize, and then detect, the nanoparticles that have found cancer cells. The resulting measurement is specific to the targeted cells and is much more sensitive than existing technologies.

Following two years of informal collaboration, MD Anderson and Senior Scientific have now inked a deal to formally collaborate on this technology seeking a path toward FDA approval and human diagnostic applications. Under the collaboration agreement announced today, Senior Scientific will supply a next generation instrument to MD Anderson during the first quarter of 2014. MD Anderson will be the first institution to use the new technology in its cancer research programs.

Dr Flynn said, "Cancer remains the second most common cause of death in the US, accounting for nearly one of every four deaths. Our formal collaboration with MD Anderson brings to fruition years of research from our MHTX team. I am excited to reach this important milestone which places our ground breaking technology into the skilled hands of the physicians and researchers at MDACC to help fight Cancer, the emperor of all maladies."

Manhattan Scientifics, Inc. is focused on technology transfer and commercialization of disruptive technologies in the nano medicine space.