18 Feb Doctors Discover Way to Limit Deadliest Form of Brain Cancer
A recent discovery by a group of Neurosurgeons has the potential to combat the deadliest form of brain cancer, glioblastoma.
In a study published in Nature Materials, the doctors developed special nanofibers, made out of polycaprolactone (PCL) polymer. They were meant to mimic the blood vessels and nerve fibers that glioblastoma cells typically travel along within the brain.
The doctors planted the fibers into test moce already infected with human glioblastomas and implanted another group of test rats with the nanofibers that do not contain PCL. After an 18 day trial, the rats with the PCL-laden fibers began to show huge reductions in tumor size when compared to the rats who did not get the PCL.
The doctors
installed, in essence, a tumor collector that was located outside of the brain. Instead of traveling through the blood vessels to infect other parts of the brain, the glioblastoma cells traveled through the nanofibers into the collector. In that collector was a toxic gel, which effectively destroyed the traveling glioblastomas.
This new discovery is a huge step in being able to treat this deadly disease. The researchers are hopeful that this development could lead to people being able to live with inoperable cancers, but that this could take some time to develop.
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