The American newspaper ACS Central Science this week published a study on chemotherapy. Researchers are proposing a 3D sponge that would allow patients on treatment to receive more localized doses of drugs. This is because the problem with chemotherapy is the very aggressive amount of chemicals injected, which does not only affect the location of the tumor but the whole body of the sick person.
Its goal ? Reduce the side effects of chemotherapy, therefore. Progress has already been made, in particular with intra-arterial chemotherapy, which is more localized. The treatment is injected into the artery that supplies the organ only. This is already the case with certain chemotherapies against liver cancer in particular.
It is currently treated in several ways, either by total ablation and a transplant, or via partial ablation (the liver is an organ that regenerates), or by percutaneous tumor destruction or even via chemotherapy. Usually the latter technique is very invasive and the drug is not limited to the organ and the tumor.
Decrease side effects
The principle of the sponge? The treatment is injected into the blood stream that supplies the organ and the tumor to be treated, it passes through the tumor and, before being spread throughout the rest of the body via the blood, it is filtered by the sponge. In this way, the sponge decreases the amount of “drug” that touches the rest of the body. In the test device, after passing through the sponge, 64% of doxorubicin (injected treatment) had disappeared.
The technique is not yet applicable on humans, the researchers are only at the stages of testing on pigs. That said, the study is promising and could, if validated by the Federal Drug Administration, help patients with liver cancer to get rid of certain side effects such as vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss, mucosal damage, heart problems. …
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