# Advancing Fluorescence Imaging-guided Partial Nephrectomy with ClearICG

> **NIH NIH R44** · CLEARNANO, INC. · 2021 · $385,318

## Abstract

Abstract
 Partial nephrectomy is becoming an increasingly important treatment for kidney cancer because more
than 60% of kidney cancer cases are diagnosed in early, localized stages. Compared to radical nephrectomy,
partial nephrectomy offers much better preservation of renal function while having an equivalent oncological
efficacy for the localized kidney cancer, thereby significantly reducing the postoperative risk of chronic kidney
disease, kidney failure and cardiovascular events. However, accurate visualization of renal tumor and its
boundary remains a long-standing technique challenge. Although intraoperative near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence
imaging has been tested to identify the renal tumor boundary after intravenous injection of indocyanine green
(ICG), hundreds of clinical cases show that the rate of positive surgical margin has not been reduced because
ICG can only visualize the normal kidney tissues and is not able to selectively accumulate in kidney cancer cells.
While nearly 40 new fluorescent agents are being evaluated in the clinics for fluorescence-guided cancer
surgery, only 2 of them can target and hyper-fluorescently image a subgroup of clear cell renal cell carcinoma
(ccRCC) (~50% of all cases) through ligand-receptor interactions and these two new probes fail to target papillary
RCC (pRCC), the one with higher recurrence rate, and other types of ccRCC. In addition, the complexity in the
probe design significantly increases the manufacture cost, >100 times higher than that of ICG. The goal of
ClearNano Inc. is to commercialize a safe, renal-tubule-clearable, tumor targeting NIR fluorescent agent, named
“ClearICG” for intraoperative, hyper-fluorescence imaging of kidney cancer including both ccRCC and pRCC.
The success of this project will advance the precision of partial nephrectomy for kidney cancer so that oncological
and renal functional outcomes can be simultaneously improved while overall medical expense is significantly
reduced (~20%). Partial nephrectomy will be the entry market for ClearICG, and its merits over ICG in the long
blood retention and tumor targeting will allow it to further replace ICG in other ICG-assisted fluorescence-guided
surgeries that require repeated injections and higher image contrast (expanded market).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10379857
- **Project number:** 1R44CA268240-01
- **Recipient organization:** CLEARNANO, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Mengxiao Yu
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $385,318
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-23 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10379857

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10379857, Advancing Fluorescence Imaging-guided Partial Nephrectomy with ClearICG (1R44CA268240-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10379857. Licensed CC0.

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