Chemotherapy Eluting Implant
MIT researchers have devised a tiny, implantable device that can deliver small doses of up to 30 different anti-cancer drugs to see which ones work best against an individual’s tumor. They describe the technique as this: “The device, made from a stiff, crystalline polymer, can be implanted in a patient’s tumor using a biopsy needle. After implantation, drugs seep 200 to 300 microns into the tumor, but do not overlap with each other. Any type of drug can go into the reservoir, and the researchers can formulate the drugs so that the doses that reach the cancer cells are similar to what they would receive if the drug were given by typical delivery methods such as intravenous injection. After one day of drug exposure, the implant is removed, along with a small sample of the tumor tissue surrounding it, and the researchers analyze the drug effects by slicing up the tissue sample and staining it with antibodies that can detect markers of cell death or proliferation.” In brief, they have figured out how to put the lab inside the patient. MORE
Image Credit: Eric Smith, MIT and MDTMag.com