Toward cancer drugs that penetrate 10 times deeper into the brain

Implants with anticancer drugs inside plastic or polymer material have been used for years to treat brain tumors, which occur in people of all ages but are the leading cause of cancer-related death in patients under age 35. Although this method delivers high doses of medication to the tumor, there’s a need for a drug that penetrates deeper into the brain tissue to kill tumors. Most drugs diffuse barely a few millimeters from the implant site, the researchers say.

In the new study, Mark Saltzman and colleagues showed that linking the anticancer drug campothecin (CPT) to the polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG), increased drug diffusion to more than a centimeter from the implant site.

They also identified a promising CPT-PET compound that could deliver 11 times more medication to the tumor than the plain drug alone. For patients, those advantages could substantially improve chances for successful treatment, the researchers indicate.

Source: ACS