March 23, 2018 (Medical News Today)
A biodegradable gel has been developed to stop the recurrence of cancer. Scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, created a gel designed to deliver immunotherapy directly to the area where cancerous tumors have been surgically removed.
The gel has been tested on mice after the surgical removal of breast cancer tumors. Not only did it prevent the regrowth of tumors at the primary site, it also helped to prevent secondary lung tumors.
According to senior study author Michael Goldberg, Ph.D., 40 percent of patients who undergo surgery for cancer tumors have a recurrence of the disease within 5 years. Also, the body’s natural healing process from surgery can actually spur the residual cancer cells to metastasize into different parts of the body forming new cancer tumors.
Solid tumors have proven difficult for CAR T-Cell therapies, as well. When the immune system is stimulated, sometimes it will attack healthy cells, as well as the cancer cells. Therefore, this study applied the immunostimulant to the site of the tumor before the surgical wound was closed. The thought was that applying it at the site of the surgery would enhance the immunotherapy.
The new therapy is a hydrogel that contains drugs that stimulate dendritic cells that expose the diseased cells to T cells that launch the attack. The gel is a prolonged drug release system that gradually releases over a period of time.
“Several months after surgery, the mice treated with the gel were much less likely to experience tumor regrowth, compared with rodents that received conventional immunotherapy delivery.”
The study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Read more details of this potential therapy at Medical News Today.
