Inhalation Therapy Delivers Drugs Directly to Lung Cancer Cells

Researchers have now found that a new drug delivery system which allows patients to inhale chemotherapeutic drugs for lung cancer can help get the drug directly to the cancer cells. According to the latest study, this system will help target the cancerous cells and stop their progression.

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world, and one of the leading causes of death in the U.S.

According to the National Cancer Institute, over 228,000 cases of lung cancer will be diagnosed this year, and more than 159,000 people will die of lung cancer.

Researchers from Rutgers University say that most lung cancer patients are diagnosed with the cancer when it is already in the advanced stage, when treatment options are limited to certain surgeries and chemotherapy.

In their study on mice, researchers have found that getting the medications directly to the cancer cells can prevent the cancer from spreading to healthy organs.

"The development of additional more effective and safe approaches to treatment of this disease is vitally important. Up until now, limited clinical efficiency and significant toxicity have represented two critical barriers restricting progress in the therapy of advanced lung cancer," said Tamara Minko, professor, Department of Pharmaceutics at Rutgers and a member of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, according to a news release.

According to researchers, drugs used to treat the cancer usually end up in the liver, kidney and spleen, and don't reach the lung cells. However, in their study, about 83 percent of the drugs delivered via the inhalation therapy reached the cancer cells in the lungs when compared with intravenous injection to the lungs, which was associated with 23 percent of the drug being delivered to the cancer site.

Researchers improved the efficiency of the drug delivery system by using a combination of cancer drugs, nanoparticles and interfering molecules that prevent cancer cells from defending themselves against the attack.

The next step of the research is to test the therapy on humans, researchers said.       

The study was published in the Journal of Controlled Release.