Improved magnetomotive embolization for hepatocellular carcinoma - cancer is the 2ND leading cause of death in the united states (US) and accounts for 1 of every 4 deaths

The National Cancer Institute awarded Unandup, LLC $405,753 on September 1, 2026, under the Cancer Treatment Research program (CFDA 93.395) to develop improved magnetomotive embolization technology for hepatocellular carcinoma treatment.

The award funds development of a magnetic particle-based embolization platform designed to address limitations of current trans-arterial embolization procedures. Conventional catheter-directed embolization, the gold standard for intermediate-stage hepatocellular carcinoma, suffers from inconsistent particle delivery due to tumor hemodynamics and tortuous vasculature, resulting in incomplete tumor occlusion and unintended embolization of healthy tissue. The magnetomotive approach aims to improve targeting precision and efficacy of the embolization agent through magnetic field guidance.

Unandup, a for-profit medical device technology firm based in St. Louis, Missouri, specializes in magnetic and nanoparticle-based interventional platforms. The company holds prior grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for magnetic thrombolysis and rotational atherectomy technologies.

Performance occurs at the recipient's location in St. Louis, Missouri. The award period runs from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2027. This Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant supports proof-of-concept development and early technical feasibility assessment of the magnetomotive embolization platform.

More than 600,000 americans will DIE of cancer in 2018, with annual US cancer-care expenditures reaching $156B by 2020, and more than 10M cancer-related deaths occur annually. While chemotherapy is effective, several cancer subtypes (including liver cancer) are associated with a very low 5-year survival rate of less than 20%. In addition, only a small proportion of cancer patients is eligible for tumor resection and organ transplant. Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common form of primary liver cancer, with over 500,000 new diagnoses each year and a 5-year survival rate of less than 18%. IT remains the 6TH most common cancer worldwide and the 3RD most common cause of cancer-related deaths. Unlike other cancers, the death rate for liver cancer has increased over the last 30 years. In general, chemotherapeutic treatment has shown limited effectiveness, with response rates less than 20% and survival less than one-year. One of the few options available to those diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma is catheter-directed trans-arterial embolization (with and without chemoembolization), which is the gold standard of care for those diagnosed with intermediate- stage carcinoma. However, despite the procedure's use for over two decades, IT remains largely unstandardized, with variations in the size and type of embolizing particles, choice and dose of chemotherapeutic agent, and the time interval between procedures. Though effective, the procedure's benefit is modest in that the survival improvement is only 4 months, and the treatment is associated with safety concerns, including embolization of unintended territories. The procedure's efficacy is hampered by the tumor's complex hemodynamics and tortuous vasculature, resulting in regions which cannot be reliably and thoroughly occluded. IT is generally believed that patient outcomes would be improved if physicians could more completely embolize the tumor's vascular network. If this were achieved, the tumor would be better starved of blood flow and chemotherapeutic agents could be more effectively delivered. UN & up has developed a breakthrough technology that enables the physician to directly control and improve the delivery of magnetic embolization beads into and throughout a tumor's vasculature. By creating unique magnetic embolization beads, which will be safe in an MR environment, and using the company's novel magnet system which generates selective magnetic instabilities at the tumor, embolization beads can be controlled in a way not otherwise possible. The result is a technology with the potential to provide substantially more effective and safer liver tumor embolizations for hepatocellular carcinoma patients. In the phase i effort, the company will 1) formulate the prototype magnetic embolization beads, 2) assess in vitro model efficacy and MR safety, and 3) assess in vivo efficacy in a rabbit tumor model. An FDA meeting in planned is advance of a phase II proposal.