Implantable drug delivery device fights cancer while maintaining patients' health

The device, developed by Dr Lyle Hood, a mechanical engineer, working with nanotechnology specialist Alessandro Grattoni of Houston Methodist Research Institute, can be used from a period of several days up to a few weeks or months.

Hood explained that the correct dose of a drug needs to be balanced between an amount that is effective against the disease and the amount that begins to be harmful to the patient’s system. This balance is often quite delicate, which means that patients who need frequent doses of a specific medicine often have to visit a doctor or clinic regularly for injections or transfusions, which is often inconvenient and burdensome for both patients, their families and staff.

The sustained-release device was originally developed by Grattoni to deliver HIV drugs over a year. "In HIV treatment, you can bombard the virus with drugs to the point that the patient is no longer infectious and shows no symptoms," Hood explained. "The danger is that if the person stops taking their drugs, the amount of medicine in his or her system drops below the effective dose and the virus is able to become resistant to the treatments."