Computational modeling of drug diffusion and inductive heating in an implantable biomedical device for localized thermo-chemotherapy of cancer cells/tissue

This paper presents the study of an implantable biomedical device for the localized released of chemotherapeutic drugs and the controlled heating of surrounding tumor tissue to enable cancer treatment via a hyperthermia and chemotherapy combination. The coupling of magnetic induction, heat transfer, and mass diffusion concepts used to model temperature changes and drug release from the biomedical device to a surrounding environment that mimics breast tumor tissue and normal breast tissue. The predictions of temperature change in the residual tumor cells and the normal breast tissue show that when an excitation current of 25 mA supplied to the device generates heat that required to kill the residual cancer cells without damaging the nearby healthy tissue. Also, the predictions of prodigiosin concentration released from the biomedical device into selected depths in the breast phantom model show that the residual tumor has a higher concentration than the healthy tissue. The proposed system proved capable for prolonged drug delivery and temperature rise of tumor to therapeutic values for effective localize cancer treatment

Extended pulsated drug release from PLGA-based minirods

The kinetics of degradation and sustained cancer drugs (paclitaxel (PT) and prodigiosin (PG)) release are presented for minirods (each with diameter of ~5 and ~6 mm thick). Drug release and degradation mechanisms were studied from solvent-casted cancer drug-based minirods under in vitro conditions in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) at a pH of 7.4. The immersed minirods were mechanically agitated at 60 revolutions per minute (rpm) under incubation at 37 °C throughout the period of the study. The kinetics of drug release was studied using ultraviolet visible spectrometry (UV-Vis). This was used to determine the amount of drug released at 535 nm for poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) loaded with prodigiosin (PLGA-PG) samples, and at 210 nm, for paclitaxel-loaded samples (PLGA-PT). The degradation characteristics of PLGA-PG and PLGA-PT are elucidated using optical microscope as well as scanning electron microscope (SEM). Statistical analysis of drug release and degradation mechanisms of PLGA-based minirods were performed. The implications of the results are discussed for potential applications in implantable/degradable structures for multi-pulse cancer drug delivery