Cancer treatments like chemotherapy are known for their effectiveness in fighting cancer cells, but they often come at a cost—namely, the suppression of patients’ immune systems. This results in tens of thousands of cancer patients annually facing a higher risk of infections, which can prove fatal without proper management.
Doctors find themselves navigating a precarious balance: delivering enough chemotherapy to effectively combat cancer while avoiding a dangerous drop in the patient’s white blood cell count, known as neutropenia. Unfortunately, the current standard for monitoring white blood cells relies exclusively on blood tests, which can contribute to patients feeling socially isolated between treatment sessions.
Enter Leuko, a pioneering company developing an innovative at-home white blood cell monitor aimed at providing doctors with a comprehensive view of their patients’ health from afar. Instead of invasive blood draws, this device employs light to examine the skin above the fingernail, coupled with artificial intelligence to determine when white blood cell levels dip to critical lows.
The roots of this groundbreaking technology trace back to MIT, where researchers conceptualized the idea in 2015. Over the years, prototypes were created and small-scale studies validated the approach. Today, Leuko’s devices have successfully identified low white blood cell counts in hundreds of cancer patients without extracting any blood.
“We anticipate a significant enhancement in patient monitoring and care in outpatient settings,” states Ian Butterworth, Leuko co-founder and CTO, who previously served as a research engineer at MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics. “This technology also adds a more personal element for patients. They often feel vulnerable and have limited options for engagement. Family visits become fraught with concerns about their risk of infection.”
For the past four years, Leuko has collaborated with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct studies affirming their device’s accuracy and user-friendliness for untrained individuals. They hope to commence a pivotal study later this year to seek FDA approval.
As the device becomes a trusted tool in patient monitoring, Leuko’s team believes it could provide healthcare professionals with new strategies for optimizing cancer treatments.
“Many physicians we’ve conversed with are eager about the potential for future versions of our product to personalize chemotherapy dosages,” explains Carlos Castro-Gonzalez, co-founder and CEO of Leuko and former MIT postdoc. “If a patient remains stable and does not show signs of neutropenia, it may indicate that a dosage increase is possible. This way, every treatment can be tailored to the individual patient’s response.”
Monitoring Immune Health
Leuko’s co-founders—Butterworth, Castro-Gonzalez, Aurélien Bourquard, and Alvaro Sanchez-Ferro—began their journey at MIT in 2013 as part of the Madrid-MIT M+Vision Consortium, a collaborative initiative fostering biomedical research between MIT and Madrid, now part of MIT linQ. The program aimed to address significant unmet medical needs and connected participants with MIT faculty members to develop tangible solutions. The entrepreneurs received invaluable support from MIT’s robust ecosystem, including the Venture Mentoring Service and several innovation funds.
“Before joining this program, I didn’t even know entrepreneurship was a viable career path for someone with my academic background,” Castro-Gonzalez recalls. “I had envisioned pursuing faculty positions after my fellowship. MIT’s commitment to translating science into consumer-friendly products truly opened new doors for me.”
Recognizing the urgent need for improvement in cancer patient care, Leuko’s founders set out to create a noninvasive way to monitor white blood cell counts. As it stands, patients can only monitor their temperature at home; if that indicates a fever, they are instructed to visit the emergency room immediately, leaving them at risk.
Sanchez-Ferro notes, “Infections during chemotherapy are disturbingly common. Approximately one in six cancer patients will develop an infection marked by dangerously low white blood cell levels. Tragically, some of these cases result in fatalities, highlighting the dire consequences of treatment rather than the disease itself. Interrupting chemotherapy due to infections further exacerbates negative health outcomes.”
Leuko’s advanced optical device operates by imaging the capillaries—tiny blood vessels—just beneath the fingernail. This method, utilized by doctors for various vascular assessments, enables the analysis of white blood cell activity, identifying critical drops in real time.
A 2019 study involving 44 patients demonstrated that Leuko’s technology successfully detected when white blood cell levels fell below risk thresholds with minimal false positives. This year, they have developed a product validated by another larger study, proving that unmonitored patients can utilize it safely at home to provide vital immune health data to their healthcare teams.
“Our noninvasive approach allows patients to perform regular white blood cell measurements at home, far more frequently than is currently feasible,” Bourquard explains. “This empowerment enables doctors to pinpoint patients whose immune systems are compromised, putting them at higher infection risk. Armed with this information, healthcare providers can proactively offer treatment options like antibiotics and growth factors, potentially reducing hospitalizations by an estimated 50%.”
Expanding Future Applications
Leuko’s founders envision their device not only as a tool for cancer care but as an essential component for monitoring various other health conditions. “Our long-term goal is to extend the benefits of our technology to diverse patient populations, including those battling autoimmune diseases, multiple sclerosis, and organ transplant recipients,” Castro-Gonzalez states.
Additionally, there is ambitious potential for the device to monitor different biomarkers present in blood. “We foresee this as a platform technology, capturing videos of blood flow in capillaries,” Castro-Gonzalez elaborates. “Our roadmap includes expanding the device’s capabilities to measure parameters beyond just white blood cells, such as hemoglobin and red blood cell counts.”
Photo credit & article inspired by: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
