Increasing Comfort for Chemotherapy Patients

Oral mucositis is a common side effect of chemotherapy, occurring in approximately 80 percent of high dose patients. It occurs, like hair loss, because chemotherapy drugs target rapidly growing cells, attacking both cancerous and healthy tissue. The condition features sores and ulcers in the mouth, difficulty swallowing or speaking, swelling, and infections. This can lead to a patient to stop eating and drinking, which could result in the use of a feeding tube or I.V. In severe cases of oral mucositis, patients must delay treatments, harming their chances of recovery.

“When our founder, David Yoskowitz, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma a few years ago, he experienced the side effects first hand,” explained Jon Mendelson, chief operating officer of Chemo Mouthpiece. “Due to oral mucositis, it was hard for him to eat, drink, or sleep at night and he felt depressed and hopeless. At the time, the only available treatment was sucking on ice chips, which he found to be nauseating and inefficient.”

Inventing a Solution
“After completing his treatment, Yoskowitz, an engineer by trade, became fascinated with the idea of developing a device to combat mouth sores—one more tolerable and efficient than ice chips,” added Mendelson. “The thinking behind treatment with ice—cryotherapy—is that the cold causes vasoconstriction, so less chemotherapy drugs reach the area and attack the tissue.”

“Our founder then devoted three years to passionately developing models and 3D drafts of his device. He visited countless oncology trade shows to get feedback on prototypes to develop the best possible product. The result is the Chemo Mouthpiece, an intraoral ice pack that cools the entire oral cavity. It means patients can benefit from cryotherapy throughout their entire palate, using a simple device that they can freeze at home,” explained Mendelson.

Yoskowitz built a team to help him bring the product to market. However, the team needed to find out all there was to know about oral cryotherapy and mucositis before launching the product, which requires the skills of an experienced medical researcher and writer. Hiring a full-time employee, particularly one in the local area with the required expertise, would be a huge cost, as well as a huge challenge.

Bringing an Idea to Life
After researching online, the team turned to freelancing platform Kolabtree to shortlist qualified scientific candidates to help. After posting the project on Kolabtree, the team hired freelance medical writer Dr. Kiranam Chatti, a research scientist with 13 years of post-Ph.D. research experience. Kiranam’s Ph.D. in Pharmacology & Toxicology, doctoral thesis work, post-doctoral research, and subsequent research as an independent investigator were all focused on cancer, making him a perfect fit.

“I performed systematic background research to identify, collate, and summarize existing information on the use of mouth-cooling as a method to mitigate adverse effects of cancer chemotherapy, including any commercially available products or devices,” explained Dr. Kiranam Chatti.

Dr. Chatti added, “I performed searches to find relevant articles and documents in biomedical research literature databases, clinical trial databases, patient databases, social media websites, and more to find relevant commercially available devices or products. I reviewed, shortlisted, and summarized the information, collating it into a final report.”

“Once we had the whitepaper, we were able to produce informative content for the website to get the word out to the medical and wider community, helping generate interest ahead of the company launch,” explained Mendelson. “The whitepaper helped us develop our website into a valuable source of information, meaning we could test the market without investing time and energy in areas we had no expertise.”

“Using a freelancer to produce the content saved time and money,” added Mendelson. “Bids from qualified experts came through almost as soon as the project was posted. We selected a freelancer in days and the project was completed quickly and within budget. I would recommend Kolabtree, because of the quality of work provided and the ease-of-use of the service.”

Helping Chemo Patients
The product was launched in May 2019; the first unit was shipped to coincide with the Oncology Nursing Society Convention in California. The product is now available online for patients in the U.S. and the company works with distributors in 34 countries to give cancer patients all over the world access to the Chemo Mouthpiece.

Chemo Mouthpiece has also begun a clinical trial to discover the efficacy of the product compared with best supportive care in mitigating the symptoms of oral mucositis in patients being treated for breast or colorectal cancer.

“We are proud to say that 92 percent of patients who have used our product during their treatment said they would recommend it. It is important for us to see that the Chemo Mouthpiece is helping cancer patients through this difficult time in their lives. Patient comfort and quality of life are the driving forces behind everything we do and every decision we make as a company,” concluded Mendelson.