Scientists Develop Single Direct-to-tumor Drug-delivery Device to Treat Triple-negative Breast Cancer

Houston Methodist scientists have developed Single Direct-to-tumor Drug-delivery device that treats triple-negative breast cancer.

This nanodevice delivers immunotherapy without side effects to treat triple-negative breast cancer.

It will be inserted straight into a tumor and delivers a one-time, sustained-release dose that would eliminate the need for patients to undergo several IV treatments over time.

This tiny nanodevice is smaller than a grain of rice and, once inserted a tumor, it can deliver the medication little by little, gradually releasing the drug from its reservoir.

Instead of delivering it to the whole body of a patient, it will establish a novel strategy to deliver immunotherapy straight into a tumor.
 
The implantable nanodevice can be placed inside the tumor very accurately, with just one, simple procedure and with the ability to sustain the delivery of the immunotherapy over a prolonged period of time.

This immunotherapy payload comes in a little metal device with nano-channels that release the medication at a constant rate in a controlled way.

And, providing sustained doses, their implant maintains an active level of the drug for extended periods of time.

This would reduce the need for continual clinic visits, which are usually required for immunotherapy and other cancer treatments.

The implant releases the drug in a constant manner until the entire amount is completely gone from the reservoir.

As the drug can deliver the immunotherapy by itself for weeks to potentially months, the device will be placed inside the tumor once and then the drug would be released autonomously for that long period of time.

While this platform technology can be applied to many different types of cancer, they chose to work on triple-negative breast cancer, since there’s not currently a good therapeutic approach for treating patients that are affected by the disease.

This nanodevice serves as a fiducial marker to facilitate precise delivery for image-guided radiation.