A safer and more efficient treatment system is being developed for lung cancer patients, according to scientists at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
Rather than the current approach of delivering lung cancer drugs intravenously, the researchers have devised a method for treatment by inhalation through a nebulizer. In this way, therapy can be administered far more quickly than with existing methods and without the harmful side effects (kidney damage) associated with current systems. It could also allow healthcare providers to prescribe the drugs in smaller doses without a reduction of benefit to patients.
Dr Chris Carter, a Senior Lecturer the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, led the research, partnered by Professor Alex Mullen and Dr Valerie Ferro. She said: “By delivering cisplatin, one of the most widely used drugs for lung cancer, in a vaporized form, we would be able to get it to the cancerous cells and avoid the damage to healthy cells which can be hugely debilitating to patients. It would make the treatment far less onerous for them and we hope it would help them to live longer.”
Source: University of Strathclyde.