About OncoEng

Three Universities in the UK, University of Leeds, Imperial College and University College London, have come together to deliver this research so as to make a big change in the treatment of spinal metastes along with patient recovery and wellbeing.

Learn More

For Researchers & Industry

OncoEng centres on a transformational and systems engineering approach to metastatic bone disease in the spine combining advanced image-based modelling and manufacturing to enable an optimised, metamaterial-based minimally invase implant.

Learn More

For Patients & Public

A new patient specific implant will be developed that can be inserted using minimally invasive surgery reducing trauma to the patient and drastically reduce recovery time to days rather than weeks or months

Learn More

Oncological Engineering:
A new concept in the treatment of bone metastases

Cancer prevalence in the UK is set to rise from 2 million in 2015 to 3.2 million by 2030. Metastases are the primary cause of mortality for many cancers.

Annually, 55,000 cases of bone cancer are diagnosed in the UK and of these 2/3rd patients will develop into metastatic bone disease

In the spine metastates can destroy bone in the vertebrae, weakening it and can cause significant spinal cord injury leading to paralysis.

A more patient-friendly approach is realised in OncoEng in which we predict which vertebrae with tumours are likely to fail in the future enabling informed decision on care.

Advanced computational modelling and imaging will be used to look at the growth of the tumour so that predictions of the strength of the vertebrae can be calculated a different points in time.

Custom implants requiring only key-hole surgery will be developed to support the weakened bone in order to prevent fracture, optimised to reduce impingement to the patients life through a lengthy recuperation period or additional pain.

Latest News