‘Glass bubble’ nanocarrier boosts effects of combination therapy for pancreatic cancer

Key takeaways:Improving drug delivery. Custom-designed nanoparticles that deliver drugs directly to tumors can avoid the toxicity of traditional chemotherapy.Crafting a ‘combo’ carrier. Researchers designed an innovative nanoparticle outfitted with both a chemotherapy drug and an immune system –boosting drug.Two are better. The two-drug nanocarrier was significantly better at shrinking pancreatic tumors and preventing metastasis than nanocarriers that delivered the drugs individually.Over the past 30 years, progress in early detection and treatment of cancer has helped reduce the overall death rate by more than 30%. Pancreatic cancer, however, has remained difficult to treat. Only 1 in 9 people survive five years after diagnosis, in part because this cancer is protected by biological factors that help it resist treatment.In hopes of turning the tide, UCLA researchers have developed a technology that delivers a combination therapy to pancreatic tumors using nanoscale particles loaded with irinotecan, a chemotherapy drug approved as part of a drug regimen for pancreatic cancer, and  3M-052, an investigational drug that can boost immune activity and help overcome tumors’ resistance.In astudy recently published in the journal ACS Nano, the research team showed that the simultaneously delivered combination outperformed the sum of its parts in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer.“In my opinion, invoking the immune system will make a big difference in providing a much bett...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news