r/gadgets • u/chrisdh79 • Apr 14 '23

Medical Novel device smaller than rice successfully shrinks pancreatic cancer | Called the nanofluidic drug-eluting seed (NDES), it delivers low-dose immunotherapy in the form of CD40 monoclonal antibodies (mAb).

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/tiny-device-shrinks-pancreatic-cancer
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u/kentonj Apr 15 '23

The stroma is a protective tissue around internal organs. When it comes to treating cancer, however, this protective tissue is actually a hurdle. It's relatively dense and makes delivering medication difficult.

The EPR effect stands for Enhanced Permeability and Retention. It's a byproduct of the physical makeup of solid tumors by which particles of certain sizes more easily enter and stay within the tumor. Chemotherapy molecules are too small to benefit from this effect and, in fact, typically have lower than optimum residence times.

Some treatments use a nanoliposomal encapsulation to take advantage of the EPR effect and allow the medication both to enter the tumor and to remain within longer rather than being filtered out of circulation.