Right from the start of the COMPAMED Innovation Forum, the event’s significance was underscored by Tim Merforth, Chairman of the Executive Board of IVAM since May 2025: “The COMPAMED Innovation Forum delivers an annual look ahead at trends in the industry. It outstandingly sets the mood for COMPAMED in November.” And in his opening words, Jens Ebnet, Managing Director of Ebnet Medical, emphasized: “Innovations must take utmost priority in the fight against cancer.”

Cancer caused by inflammation? The underestimated connection
In his contribution, “Inflammation: It is a key role from oncogenesis to palliative treatment”, Dr. Coenraad K. van Kalken (Excellent Care Clinics / Remicine BioSciences) talked about inflammation before and during a case of cancer. He has been conducting research into cancer for more than 30 years and highlighted that stronger consideration needed to be given to immunological reactions. Since cancer was often only detected at a late stage, he explained, a look at inflammation processes inside the body could assist early detection. But he said that inflammation processes are also important during cancer: they contribute to the chronic fatigue experienced by cancer patients.
To treat this fatigue, he is testing the use of the local anesthetic Lidocaine in a targeted lymphatic application. This originally comes from the treatment of Long Covid: and promising effects were also observed among tumor patients with chronic fatigue by van Kalken and his team. He explained that chronic inflammation, triggered by toxins from cigarette smoke for instance, provokes continuous tissue damage, thereby promoting carcinogenesis. He therefore calls for not only incorporating cellular disease mechanisms but also immunological processes in treatment and diagnostics. He stated: “There is still considerable potential for improvement in cancer survival rates. Our efforts should be directed towards timelier diagnoses and the development of personalized treatments.”

How centrifugal microfluidics make liquid biopsies more efficient
Dr. Jan Lüddecke from Hahn-Schickard presented the latest advancements in research into extracellular vesicles (EV) in “Unlocking new liquid biopsy cancer markers with centrifugal microfluidics”. EVs are particles that are shed by all cells in the body and can be isolated from all body fluids in the form of biomarkers. “Extracellular vesicles reflect the condition of the organism as a whole. This makes them more useful in diagnostics than conventional biomarkers,” reported Dr. Jan Lüddecke.

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