Pancreatic cancer has a limited response to chemotherapy treatment, due to the movement of anti-cancer drugs from the blood into tumour cells being limited by cellular mechanisms such as poor perfusion, high stromal content and raised interstitial pressure. One way to overcome these challenges and increase the toxic effect of chemotherapy treatment on a tumour would be to increase drug dosage. However, this would result in the damage of healthy non-tumour cells, and would likely result in unacceptable toxicity to patients.
The aim of Professor Constantin Coussios and his team in the Institute Biomedical Engineering (Department of Engineering Science) is to develop of drug delivery system capable of enhancing drug penetration into and around a tumour, whilst minimising toxicity to the patient. The team has so far found a successful approach, by increasing drug uptake into tumours through warming of the body, which causes vasodilation.
The full story is available on the Cancer Research UK Oxford Centre website