Despite great efforts in the development of new drugs, cancer is still the second leading cause of death in developed countries. In Germany, a solid tumor that has already formed metastases is found in an initial diagnosis of around 170,000 people every year. Approximately 90% of these patients die of cancer. Since surgery is no longer necessary for these patients, they receive systemic therapy (chemotherapy, immunotherapy, inhibitors, etc.), sometimes combined with radiation. The monitoring of this therapy is based on imaging procedures (CT or MRT), which are used to check whether the volume of the primary tumor decreases under therapy. However, these procedures usually can only be used at intervals of several months between which the treating physician cannot determine whether the therapy is effective or not. Therefore, an invasive electronic system for measuring parameters describing the activity of a tumor has to be developed. The measured data is transmitted telemetrically to the outside and then evaluated medically. In this way, continuous monitoring of the development of a tumor is possible, which would supplement the current monitoring on the basis of imaging procedures, such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, which only make it possible to assess the current activity at larger intervals over the size and contour of the tumor.

Project in the context of the EXIST-funding of the BMWi