Nanofiber Treatment for Brain Cancer Shows Promise

A new brain cancer treatment has been developed that quite literally shows tumors to the door. The treatment was introduced in a study that showed how the new treatment can guide tumor cells to a part of the brain where they can be easily removed.

Traditionally, brain cancer migrates. That's one of the reasons it is so hard to treat cancer patients, the accessible tumor doctors wanted to operate on a week ago may be on the total other side of the brain, and spread while it was at it. This happens when tumors cells hit the "roads" of the brain, following nerve fibers and blood vessels, to spread to other regions.

However, a study recently published in Nature Materials shows that this migratory nature of tumor cells can actually be used to a patient's advantage. Using specially crafted nano-fibers, biomedical engineers can craft new paths for more tempting to migrating tumors than the old. Of course, these new paths always end in a dead end.

According to the study, the nano-fiber pathways were effective in leading cancer cells to more easily accessible and safely-operable potions of a cancer patient's brain. In rats with brain cancer, the fibers resulted in a noticeably reduced tumor size, compared to a group of untreated rats. Researchers theorized that they can even use the fibers to lead cancer cells directly out of the brain entirely.

The benefits of using this technique are potentially huge. Although the fibers are likely ever to be able to remove an entire cancer, they can effectively stop the spread of a cancer in a minimally invasive way. Researchers write that this is hugely preferable to other treatments for halting aggressive tumors, which currently involve killing the cancer cells through chemical and radiation exposure. These other treatments, although mostly effective, often leave the patient significantly weakened and lower their quality of life. Treatment with the nano-fibers would only involve regular surgeries, which while potentially costly, could keep a patients quality of life largely unchanged.

The study concludes writing that the next step is to try this technique on cancers located in other parts of the body.

The study was published in Nature Materials on February 16.