The drug-delivery device, designed by researchers at the Houston Methodist Research Institute, is smaller than a grain of rice.
The researchers of the Houston Methodist Research Instituteunder the guidance of Corrine Ying Xuan Chua e Alessandro Grattonithey designed a new implantable devicethe size of a grain of rice, aimed at the administration of a immunotherapy drug.
Immunotherapy drugs have been shown to significantly extend the life expectancy of patients. However the drug is delivered throughout the body, and can therefore cause it side effects and discomforts which often last for some time, compromising the quality of life.
In this work, the researchers administered the immunotherapy drug directly into the pancreatic cancer with a device smaller than a grain of rice. Trial in a mouse model to evaluate efficacy and tolerability resulted in tumor shrinkage at a dose four times lower than traditional systemic immunotherapy treatment.
“This result implies that local treatment with an immunotherapy drug is able to activate the body’s immune response, fighting cancer cells in the rest of the body as well,” notes Xuan Chua.
“Our goal is to transform the way cancer is treated,” says Alessandro Grattoni, corresponding author and chair of the Department of Nanomedicine at the Houston Methodist Research Institute. We consider this device a viable approach to minimally invasively and effectively penetrate pancreatic cancer, allowing for more targeted therapy using fewer drugs.”
Read the full text of the article:
Sustained Intratumoral Administration of Agonist CD40 Antibody Overcomes Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment in Pancreatic Cancer
Nurse Times editorial team
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