A New System for Delivering Anticancer Drugs to Pediatric Tumors

07 Jun 2018

The transport of drugs using nanoparticles is a very promising technology expected to change the face of medicine. It is particularly relevant for transferring anti-cancer drugs into the tumor. But despite extensive research and developments, the implementation of such technology for children with cancer has not been widely studied to date. This is due in part to restrictions on child participation in clinical trials and variances in the physiology of children at different ages.

But a new system for the transport of anti-cancer drugs, developed at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology offers hope and a glimpse of things to come. The system – which slows tumor growth and prolongs life expectancy in mice by 42% – was developed by Prof. Alejandro Sosnik of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering together with graduate student Alex Bukchin and conducted in collaboration with the research group of Dr. Angel Carcaboso from the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu-Barcelona. The study was published in the Journal of Controlled Release.

Prof. Sosnik is part of the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI) and recently joined the Technion Integrative Cancer Center (TICC) as affiliated engineering faculty member.

Research