A major breakthrough in cancer treatment
Rotterdam is not only the city with the largest building and the tallest residential tower, but houses also the largest hospital in the Netherlands: Erasmus MC. It was in this academic hospital where a team or researchers discovered a new way to fight head and neck cancer. Based on this technology Sensius started the development and production of the HyperCollar3D. A breakthrough that hopefully helps half a million patients who are diagnosed with head and neck cancer every year. Read here how Rotterdam helped Sensius on its way.
Head and neck cancer is very difficult to combat and 50 percent of patients are after treatment confronted with recurring tumor. In addition, the treatment is very challenging because radio and chemotherapy have serious negative side effects. This makes the overall survival low and patients may survive with a lower state of life. The HyperCollar 3D of Sensius has caused a breakthrough. This Rotterdam-based invention uses microwave energy to heat cancer cells to 43 degrees Celsius. This is important because heat makes cancer cells more sensitive to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The HyperCollar 3D is placed around the head and neck and contains 20 antennas, they accurately focus the heat on the essential parts. Sensitive organs like eyes or brains are avoided. The outcome of working with the HyperCollar 3D are very promising.
Rotterdam has more to offer than you think at first glance. Try Rotterdam!
Paul Biggelaar, CEO Sensius
We all know, even for promising products or start-ups, the road to commercial success can be long and bumpy. Rotterdam helps start-ups in all possible ways. Paul van den Biggelaar, CEO and co-founder of Sensius knows all about it. And he totally agrees. 'Rotterdam is very interesting for Sensius for two reasons. First of all of course the presence of the Erasmus MC. It is their innovation and we, Sensius, put it on the market. The people of Erasmus MC are enterprising and pragmatic. The second reason we are happy with Rotterdam is the municipality itself. Rotterdam helped us very well with the so-called Horizon2020. We won the prize of € 50.000 and with that money we were able to conduct a market survey. Rotterdam provided professional consultants and RVO experts who helped us writing the proposal. It only took two weeks, which is very unusual. And we won it. If we had done it on our own, it would have cost us more time and effort and the chance of winning had been much smaller. Thanks to this, the business started to move. After which Rotterdam Partners introduced us to very interesting companies in America. Yes, Rotterdam helped us really well with winning the market survey. And with enlarging our network. And what to think of our view from the 18th floor of the Rotterdam Science Tower? It is a beautiful place: for us and for our guests. In fact, in our tower you only find start-up companies. This is very inspiring and it is therefore a very pleasant
environment to work.' Paul van den Biggelaar said Rotterdam was interesting because of two reasons. After all he mentioned four reasons. You see, Rotterdam has more to offer than you think at first glance. Try Rotterdam!
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