Drug-filled ‘microbubbles’ could boost war on cancer
micROBUBBLeS loaded with drugs could revolutionise the treatment of cancer.
Scientists at Oxford University found the technique increased the power of chemotherapy ten-fold and significantly reduced its side effects.
they used microbubbles – tiny capsules carrying cancer-beating drugs – and injected them into the bloodstream.
When the bubbles reached a tumour they were heated with ultrasound waves to make them burst open and release the drug exactly where it is needed. the bubbles are each a hundredth the width of a human hair.
Usually chemotherapy is injected into the bloodstream, flooding the entire body with the drug in the hope some will reach the tumour.
Sending medication directly to a tumour safely within a bubble makes it much more effective.
Far lower doses can be used because the drug attacks only the tumour and not the healthy tissue elsewhere in the body.
Doctors have been working on the technology for some years but have now tested it on human patients for the first time.
the scientists, whose work is published in the Lancet Oncology journal, initially found that the levels of chemotherapy drug doxorubicin that reached the tumour could be safely doubled. in a second round they managed to boost this to ten times.
all but one of the patients, treated at the churchill Hospital in Oxford, were discharged the day after the one-hour procedure. the scientists stressed their research is at an early stage and it is not yet clear how effective the treatment is.
But their initial analysis showed the tumours were reacting more strongly to chemotherapy when the targeted approach was used.
the technology has the potential to transform the lives of countless patients – including those with other types of cancer.
Professor mark middleton, principal investigator of the study, said: ‘ the ability of ultrasound to increase the dose and distribution of drugs within those regions raises the possibility of eliciting a response in several difficult-totreat solid tumours.
‘this opens the way not only to making more of current drugs but also targeting new agents where they need to be most effective. We can now begin to realise the promise of precision cancer medicine.’
if the microbubble approach works, doctors could make better use of cheap drugs by delivering more of them to the right location. chemotherapy has been the mainstay of cancer treatment for many years.
But recently most of the focus of cancer research has been based on creating radical new treatments such as immunotherapy, gene therapy and viral therapy – all at huge expense.