Nanoparticle research may improve tumour treatment

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) accounts for half of all brain tumours and has a high recurrence rate, usually resulting in aggressive surgery plus chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Now, researchers have proposed a new treatment using nanoparticles which deliver chemotherapeutic drugs and therapeutic antibodies directly to the cancer. In vitro experiments showed this can be significantly more efficacious and has the additional benefit of avoiding invasive surgery.

More research is needed before the new therapy can be given to patients but, the researchers said, it “…has the potential to revolutionise anti-cancer treatment by combining different killing strategies”.

Dr Irina Savina

The research project ‘GLIOMA’ was undertaken by Dr Sreejith Raveendran with the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSC) programme, and is published by the European Commission’s CORDIS information service.

The project was coordinated by Dr Irina Savina, from the University of Brighton’s Biomaterials and Drug Delivery Research and Enterprise Group.

Dr Savina, senior lecturer in the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Science, said: “Administration of combinatorial therapies that include chemotherapeutic agents and immunogens is the way forward for cancer treatment; not only do you kill cancer cells, but you also establish durable immunological memory to prevent tumour recurrence.”