The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Illuminare-1 Investigational New Drug (IND) approval for the first-in-human trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). Illuminare-1 is a small molecule, myelin binding agent that is meant to improve the visualization and delineation of the structure of nerves in real time, intra-operatively. Associate Attending Surgeon in the Urology Service at MSK and lead investigator of the clinical trial, Timothy Donahue, MD, stated “This is an important first step for this agent, one that we hope will ultimately lead to a reduction in unintended nerve injuries during surgery. At MSK we are focused on how we can lessen the burden of cancer treatment on our patients and so we are eager to begin this trial.”
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