Amplitude
  • MAGAZINE
    • Subscribe
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Living With Amplitude
      • Adaptive Living
      • Amputee to Amputee
      • Arts & Culture
      • Education
      • Featured
      • Getting Support
      • Giving Support
      • Health & Medicine
      • Money Matters
      • Relationships
      • Science & Technology
      • Sports & Recreation
      • Transportation & Mobility
      • More Amplitude
    • View Print Edition
  • NEWSLETTER
    • Recent Articles
    • Newsletter Archive
  • RESOURCES
    • Guide to Living With Limb Loss
    • Amputee Resource Directory
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • Subscribe to Magazine
    • Subscribe to Weekly Newsletter
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • ABOUT US
      • Contact Us
      • Advertiser Information
      • Privacy Policy
      • Cookie Policy
      • Cancellation Policy
  • READER’S CHOICE
  • PARALYMPICS
    • Latest News
    • Pathways to Paris
    • Meet the Athletes
No Result
View All Result
  • MAGAZINE
    • Subscribe
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Living With Amplitude
      • Adaptive Living
      • Amputee to Amputee
      • Arts & Culture
      • Education
      • Featured
      • Getting Support
      • Giving Support
      • Health & Medicine
      • Money Matters
      • Relationships
      • Science & Technology
      • Sports & Recreation
      • Transportation & Mobility
      • More Amplitude
    • View Print Edition
  • NEWSLETTER
    • Recent Articles
    • Newsletter Archive
  • RESOURCES
    • Guide to Living With Limb Loss
    • Amputee Resource Directory
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • Subscribe to Magazine
    • Subscribe to Weekly Newsletter
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • ABOUT US
      • Contact Us
      • Advertiser Information
      • Privacy Policy
      • Cookie Policy
      • Cancellation Policy
  • READER’S CHOICE
  • PARALYMPICS
    • Latest News
    • Pathways to Paris
    • Meet the Athletes
No Result
View All Result
Amplitude

New Device May Help Identify Best Cancer Drugs for Each Patient

May 27, 2015
0

More than 100 drugs have been approved to treat cancer, but predicting which ones will help a particular patient is an inexact science at best.

A new device developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) may change that. The implantable device, about the size of a grain of rice, can carry small doses of up to 30 different drugs. After implanting it in a tumor and letting the drugs diffuse into the tissue, researchers can measure how effectively each one kills the patient’s cancer cells.

Such a device could eliminate much of the guesswork now involved in choosing cancer treatments, said Oliver Jonas, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and lead author of a paper describing the device in Science Translational Medicine.

“You can use it to test a patient for a range of available drugs and pick the one that works best,” Jonas said.

Putting the Lab in the Patient

Most of the commonly used cancer drugs work by damaging DNA or otherwise interfering with cell function. Scientists have recently developed more targeted drugs designed to kill tumor cells that carry a specific genetic mutation. However, it is usually difficult to predict whether a particular drug will be effective in an individual patient.

In some cases, doctors extract tumor cells, grow them in a lab dish, and treat them with different drugs to see which ones are most effective. However, this process removes the cells from their natural environment, which can play an important role in how a tumor responds to drug treatment, Jonas said.

“The approach that we thought would be good to try is to essentially put the lab into the patient,” he said. “It’s safe, and you can do all of your sensitivity testing in the native microenvironment.”

The MIT device is made from a stiff, crystalline polymer and can be implanted in a patient’s tumor using a biopsy needle. After implantation, drugs seep 200 to 300 microns (about 1/64 in.) into the tumor but do not overlap with each other. Any type of drug can go into the device’s reservoir, and the researchers can formulate the drugs so that the doses that reach the cancer cells are similar to what a patient would receive if the drug were given by typical delivery methods such as intravenous injection.

After one day of drug exposure, the implant is removed, along with a small sample of the tumor tissue surrounding it, and the researchers analyze the drug’s effects by slicing up the tissue sample and staining it with antibodies that can detect markers of cell death or proliferation.

“This device could help us identify the best chemotherapy agents and combinations for every tumor prior to starting systemic administration of chemotherapy, as opposed to making choices based on population-based statistics. This has been a long-standing pursuit of the oncology community and an important step toward our goal of developing precision-based cancer therapy,” said José Baselga, MD, PhD, chief medical officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and an author of the paper.

Possibilities for the Future

The researchers are now working on ways to make the device easier to read while it is still inside the patient to allow faster results. They are also planning to launch a clinical trial in breast cancer patients in 2016.

Another possible application for the device is guiding the development and testing of new cancer drugs. In a small trial with human patients, researchers could create and test several different variants of a promising drug compound all at once, then choose the most effective one to carry on to a larger clinical trial.

This article was adapted from information provided by the Koch Institute.

Tags: getting supportgiving supportHealth & MedicineMoreScience & TechnologySpotlight on Books
Previous Post

Shriners Joins Mayo Clinic Care Network

Next Post

Perceived Stigma of PTSD Deters Many from Seeking Help

Next Post

Perceived Stigma of PTSD Deters Many from Seeking Help


Subscribe Today

Recent Posts

  • Prosthetic Insurance Reform for Amputees
  • Socket Stickers: Prosthetic Art for Amputees on a Budget
  • Budget Cutters Put Amputee Services in the Crosshairs
  • Pennies for Prosthetics: An Update
  • An Online Hangout for Young Amputees

201 East 4th Street
Loveland, CO 80537
303-255-0843
©2025 Amplitude Media Group

Today’s amputees are living more dynamic lives than ever before. Amplitude tells their stories.

About Us
Privacy Policy
Subscribe

FOLLOW US

Facebook Twitter Instagram Linkedin

No part of this electronic publication/website may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Amplitude Media Group.

No Result
View All Result
  • MAGAZINE
    • Subscribe
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Living With Amplitude
      • Adaptive Living
      • Amputee to Amputee
      • Arts & Culture
      • Education
      • Featured
      • Getting Support
      • Giving Support
      • Health & Medicine
      • Money Matters
      • Relationships
      • Science & Technology
      • Sports & Recreation
      • Transportation & Mobility
      • More Amplitude
    • View Print Edition
  • NEWSLETTER
    • Recent Articles
    • Newsletter Archive
  • RESOURCES
    • Guide to Living With Limb Loss
    • Amputee Resource Directory
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • Subscribe to Magazine
    • Subscribe to Weekly Newsletter
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • ABOUT US
      • Contact Us
      • Advertiser Information
      • Privacy Policy
      • Cookie Policy
      • Cancellation Policy
  • READER’S CHOICE
  • PARALYMPICS
    • Latest News
    • Pathways to Paris
    • Meet the Athletes

Amplitude
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkPrivacy Policy