Objective There is a need for addressing the condition and symptoms associated with oesophageal cancer in Europe and Worldwide. Around 5-10 in every 1000 men and around 1 in every 1000 women will develop oesophageal cancer during their lifetime, with care being mainly palliative via oesophageal stents, rather than therapeutic. This form of cancer has been demonstrated to be on the increase in Europe due to the growth in cases of adenocarcinomas, which in turn can be linked to the increase in alcohol consumption and obesity in western countries.There are problems associated with the current palliative treatments available for oesophageal cancer. Namely, tumour ingrowth into the stent, hyperplasic tissue formation and migration of the device. In the past few years, the scientific development of oesophageal stents has been on an increase However, the creation of a therapeutic device rather than merely a palliative one is still unavailable. Such an advancement would cause a major shift in the treatment of oesophageal cancer, allowing the state of the art to be pushed into new realms.This proposal will address the ultimate goal of treating the condition of oesophageal cancer with the aim of restoring oesophageal function and returning the lives of sufferers to near-normal states. This will be achieved by the creation of a novel drug-eluting, shape memory, degradable composite stent using the experience of the researcher (Dr Judith Juhasz) and supervisor (Professor Aldo Boccaccini) at the Institute of Biomaterials in the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Creation of this novel material within this Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship will advance the understanding of stent design for the treatment of oesophageal cancer and will put Europe in a leading position as a competitor in the biomaterials market. Fields of science medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncologyprostate cancernatural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryalcoholsengineering and technologyindustrial biotechnologybiomaterialsmedical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutritionobesity Programme(s) FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF - Marie-Curie Action: "Intra-European fellowships for career development" Call for proposal FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF) Coordinator FRIEDRICH-ALEXANDER-UNIVERSITAET ERLANGEN-NUERNBERG EU contribution € 216 952,80 Address SCHLOSSPLATZ 4 91054 Erlangen Germany See on map Region Bayern Mittelfranken Erlangen, Kreisfreie Stadt Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Ulrike Hoffmann (Mrs.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data