Neutropenic sepsis (NS) is a life-threatening complication of cancer chemotherapy. It occurs because chemotherapy temporarily suppresses the immune system, particularly neutrophil cells, and even mild illnesses can be fatal for patients during this time. As a result, if any chemotherapy patient has a fever or feels unwell they are advised to attend hospital, just in case they may be developing NS. National guidance mandates patients with suspected NS receive life-saving antibiotics within one hour of entering hospital as risk of death increases with each hour's delay. However, two important problems exist in the current pathway. Firstly, due to delays and inefficiencies in identifying those at risk of the condition, around half of patients do not receive life-saving antibiotics within one hour of arriving at hospital. Secondly, more than half of patients attending hospital have normal neutrophils, so did not necessarily need emergency assessment and treatment. The NeutroCheck solution includes an innovative device and app that will enable accurate identification of chemotherapy patients who may be at risk of NS. Our low-cost device uses a fingerprick of blood to provide a rapid and accurate measurement of neutrophil and sepsis marker levels. This will enable health professionals to focus their care on truly unwell patients and ensure that those cancer patients who can avoid hospital attendance can safely do so. NeutroCheck will save lives by enabling earlier antibiotic delivery and reduce unnecessary emergency hospital visits, improving quality of life and saving the NHS millions of pounds. In this project, 52 North Health, the creators of NeutroCheck, will collaborate with Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UnifAI Technology, The UK Sepsis Trust and Macmillan Cancer Support to finish developing and gain regulatory approval for NeutroCheck so that patients and health professionals can access its wide-ranging benefits.

To synthesise new antibodies and develop new cutting-edge lateral flow-based diagnostics to support more precise monitoring of cancer patients at risk of complications from chemotherapy

Neutropenic sepsis (NS) is a life-threatening medical emergency that occurs in patients having chemotherapy. NS occurs because chemotherapy may suppress the immune system and if patients develop an infection during this time, even a mild illness can be fatal. Delays to antibiotic use increase the risk of death. The key blood cell that is suppressed and leads to NS is a type of white blood cell known as the neutrophil. Consequently, if a patient on active chemotherapy has even mild signs of an infection outside of a hospital environment, national guidelines state they must be brought into hospital to have a blood test to check their neutrophil count. While the healthcare team awaits results for 1-2 hours, the patient is given intravenous antibiotics as a precaution in case they have low neutrophils, because delays to treatment increase the risk of death. Around half of these patients brought into hospital turn out to have a normal neutrophil count and therefore did not need to attend hospital or have antibiotics. This costs the healthcare provider time and resources, and can be stressful for the patient. In 2018, in the UK alone, around £35 million will have been wasted on these unnecessary visits. NeutroCheck is developing a transformative new medical device to provide tangible improvements in patient care and healthcare resource management, both financial and human. The innovative lateral flow device is designed to be portable and easy-to-use and will be used in the patient's home to give a near-instant measure of the patient's neutrophil count using blood from a small pin-prick. Our focus is to produce a fast, reliable and low-cost device which would improve safety and quality of life for cancer patients worldwide. It will enable patients diagnosed with NS outside of hospital to receive antibiotics more quickly (e.g. via paramedics) whilst reducing antibiotic resistance and saving healthcare institutions such as the NHS millions of pounds each year from substantially reducing hospital visits.