Novel Chemotherapy Delivery Method for Urothelial Tumors
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What Our Senior Design Group is About
Need for Product:
When focusing on chemotherapy as a treatment for urothelial cancer, there are still many issues that require novel approaches in order to improve effectiveness of the drugs. Some are listed below:
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Because the chemotherapy agent must be delivered through a catheter into the bladder, the drug must travel against the urine flowing from the kidney through the ureter
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Residual urine volume will dilute the drug and must be accounted for
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The variable pH value of the urine can degrade the drug, making it inactive
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The urothelium, the lining of the bladder, serves as a barrier that prevents drugs from passing into deeper layers and reaching more advanced tumors
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The amount of time the drug spends directly interacting with tumor cells is usually too low to be maximally effective, but increasing the dosage has harmful effects on the non-cancerous cells in the urinary system
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As with all chemotherapy drugs, it is difficult to develop a drug that will only attack cancerous cells.
Background Info On Urothelial Cancer:
Urothelial Cancer is the fifth most common malignancy in the United States, and the fourth and eighth most common cancer in American men and women, respectively. Urothelial cancer can develop in the renal pelvis, the ureters, the bladder or the upper majority of the urethra. The stages of tumor growth typically begin in the inner lining of the urothelium. From there, the tumor spreads into the connective tissue, then into the muscle layer, and finally the fatty tissue. Once past the fatty tissue, the tumor can spread to adjacent organs. Urothelial cancer is staged according to the degree of muscle invasiveness and metastasis. Current options for treatment emphasize surgery and chemotherapy. To reduce the risk of metastasis, the standard treatment for muscle-invasive urothelial cancer is surgery in combination with drug therapy. Because of the unusually high risk of recurrence in urothelial tumors, chemotherapy is commonly used as a secondary form of treatment after surgery.
Application of Magnetic Nanoparticles
Magnetic nanoparticles are composed of magnetic elements such as iron, nickel, or cobalt and can be directed to specific tumor regions by use of a magnetic field. Specific drugs can be attached by an activated carbonized layer containing the chemotherapeutic agent.
There are several benefits to using magnetic nanoparticles in drug delivery as it relates to urothelial cancer:
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An external magnetic field directs the magnetic nanoparticles toward the tumor, allowing for maximum interaction with the cancerous cells and localized treatment.
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The speed of drug delivery is greatly increased because the magnet assists in overcoming the flow of urine discharge.
Applications of Nanotechnology in Urothelial Cancer Therapy
Chemotherapy can prevent superficial urothelial cancer from further developing, requiring more invasive treatment and increased therapy costs. Because of issues with the urothelial permeability barrier and urine discharge, targeted administration of chemotherapy is more effective than systemic therapies. Targeted treatment has less side-effects and eliminates drug waste. Recently, nanoparticles have been used for drug targeting because of the ability to chemically customize them. The application of nanotechnology for chemotherapy treatment is usually focused on non-muscle invasive tumors. Due to their versatile properties, nanoparticles can be modified to enhance penetration into the urothelium.
