Wouldn’t it be wonderful if scientists could come up with some way to significantly reduce the side effects of chemotherapy drugs?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if scientists could come up with some way to significantly reduce the side effects of chemotherapy drugs?
Well researchers in the United States reckon they are close to doing just that, according to a paper published in ACS Central Science earlier this month.
How so? By coating a 3D-printed cylinder with a drug-absorbing sponge, then inserting that device into a patient’s vein downstream from the organ being targeted by the chemo, thus reducing the flow-on havoc caused by the poison, apparently.
In a test on pigs, the tiny sponge absorbed about 64% of a liver cancer drug injected upstream from the organ.
The concept of the chemo-filter could also be used to treat tumours in other organs, such as the brain or kidneys, the researchers say.
