How to get more cancer-fighting nanoparticles to where they are needed

U of T Engineering researchers have discovered a dose threshold that greatly increases the delivery of cancer-fighting drugs into a tumour.

Determining this threshold provides a potentially universal method for gauging nanoparticle dosage and could help advance a new generation of cancer therapy, imaging and diagnostics.

“It’s a very simple solution, adjusting the dosage, but the results are very powerful,” says Ben Ouyang (MD/BME PhD candidate), who led the research under the supervision of Professor Warren Chan of U of T’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering (BME) and Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research.

Their findings were published today in Nature Materials, providing solutions to a drug-delivery problem previously raised by Chan and researchers four years ago in Nature Reviews Materials.