A new cancer therapy using nanoparticles to deliver a combination therapy direct to cancer cells could be on the horizon, scientists say.
The therapy, which has been shown to make breast cancer and prostate cancer tumours more sensitive to chemotherapy, is now close to entering clinical trials, said researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the UK.
Using nanoparticles to get drugs directly into a tumour is a growing area of cancer research. The technology is the first of its kind to use nanoparticles to deliver two drugs in combination to target cancer cells. The drugs, already approved for clinical use, are an anti-cancer drug called docetaxel, and fingolimod, a multiple sclerosis drug that makes tumours more sensitive to chemotherapy.