One particular form of stubborn cancer, known as hepatocellular carcinoma, has been challenging to treat and as a result it’s associated with a high mortality rate. Current treatment involves transarterial chemoembolization, an imprecise and invasive form of local drug delivery. Working to address these issues, scientists at Tulane University developed a combination therapeutic that involves vaporizing the tiny droplets of perfluorocarbon (organic substance composed of carbon and fluorine). The form of gas embolization was published in APL Bioengineering.
"By changing the treatment parameters in this paper, we were able to achieve tumor regression, and by combining our method with chemotherapy, we were able to reduce regrowth following treatment," author Joseph Bull said. "Gas embolization has never been used in patients. Demonstrating that it can induce tumor regression is really new. We're very excited about the work in this paper."
The method was tested in combination of doxorubicin (DOX) and tirapazamine, two common cancer drugs. The combination was so effective that it shrunk tumors on average to 2.9% of their original size.
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Source: Science Daily
