Chemotherapy stops
or slows the growth of cancer cells, but it also damages healthy cells. Researchers
are exploring treatments that attack cancer cells with better precision, thus
reducing the risk of harming healthy tissue. A team of scientists
has developed just such a technique, called iontophoresis, which uses an
electric field to deliver high concentrations of chemotherapy to select areas.
"A big
challenge with many drugs is getting them where they need to go," said
Lissett Bickford, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical
Engineering at Virginia Tech and a co-author of the study.
"(Iontophoresis) basically forces drugs directly to and through the tumor,
allowing all cancer cells in the treatment zone to get that exposure."
Iontophoresis uses
an electric field to push drugs into the tumor. A small device that generates
the electric field is implanted in the tumor or placed on the skin. The device
also contains a reservoir of chemotherapy. When activated, the electric field
pushes the drug into the entire tumor.
In mice with human
inflammatory breast cancer, treatment with both iontophoresis and regular
intravenous chemotherapy increased survival time as compared with either
treatment alone. Treating mice with iontophoresis after intravenous
chemotherapy treatment boosted the concentration of the drug in the tumor, but barely
raised the concentration in the blood plasma. This indication suggests there
could be fewer side effects, an all-too-common complaint associated with
chemotherapy.
The researchers
say iontophoresis effectively delivered the drug despite pressure from the
surrounding area of the tumor, a common complication in drug treatment
strategies. This pressure, which is caused by leaks from the blood vessels of
the tumor, often inhibits or complicates other drug delivery strategies.
Iontophoresis could
allow doctors to use more potent cancer-fighting drugs by localizing their
effects or pave the way for new multi-drug combinations by better aiming the
more toxic compounds at the tumor and freeing the rest of the body from their
harmful effects.
"This may
ultimately lead to a reduction in the morbidity and mortality rates commonly
found in different types of cancer," says James Byrne, lead author of the
study and a postdoctoral researcher and medical student at the University of
North Carolina.
According to a BCC
Research report (BIO048C), newer therapies like iontophoresis and others will surpass
conventional cancer therapies and propel sales in the global cancer therapy
market to $111 billion in 2019. The U.S. National Institutes of Health estimated
the overall cost of cancer in the United States was $206.3 billion in 2006, with
$78.2 billion in direct medical costs.
For our BCC
Research reports on cancer, visit the following links:
Biological Therapies for Cancer:
Technologies and Global Markets (BIO048C)
Therapeutics for
'Silent' Cancers (PHM169A)
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