News
Localized delivery of an anti-cancer drug by remote-controlled microcarriers
Published on October 14, 2011
The tour de force is the result of a collaboration between researchers at Polytechnique Montreal and IRIC
In September, the television program Le Code Chastenay presented a recent multidisciplinary study between researchers at Polytechnique Montreal and IRIC. It features Sylvain Martel, Director of the Nanorobotics Laboratory at Polytechnique Montréal and Louis Gaboury, Principal Investigator of the Histology and Molecular Pathology research unit at IRIC. The researchers study how drug delivery can precisely target cancerous cells without exposing the healthy surrounding tissue to the medication’s toxic effects.
Using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, the team successfully guided microcarriers loaded with a dose of anti-cancer drug through the bloodstream of a living rabbit, right up to a targeted area in the liver, where the drug was successfully administered. This is a medical first that will help improve chemoembolization, a current treatment for liver cancer.