By Dr Clare Hoskins ( Leader of the Keele Nanopharmaceutics Research Group , Institute for Science & Technology in Medicine , Keele University )
Theranostic Advances
The knowledge and fabrication of nanotechnologies
Hundreds of thousands of patients are diagnosed with cancer every year in the UK . Delay in cancer diagnosis is directly linked to a reduction in the chance of survival . Hence , early diagnosis can mean the difference between life or death . Cancer Research UK estimates that up to 10,000 cancer deaths each year could be avoided through earlier diagnosis and access to optimal treatment . There is an increasing need for more effective therapies for a range of cancers including , but not limited to , liver , pancreatic and colon cancer . This is because current drug treatments are ineffective in the majority of patients , due to drug molecules being unable to enter the dense tumour tissue . Additionally , drug resistance has resulted in high rates of cancer recurrence and ultimately mortality .
Advancements in the knowledge and fabrication of nanotechnologies have led to one particularly exciting and innovative development for use in cancer diagnostics and therapeutics - ‘ Theranostics .’ These multifunctional nanoparticles offer simultaneous diagnosis and therapeutic delivery . Such a platform can reduce the detrimental time lapse between diagnosis and drug administration , resulting in the increased chance of patient survival . By coupling the controlled treatment of cancer with diagnosis , a rapid and localised clinical effect can be achieved . This reduces patient discomfort and results in decreased treatment times . Work in this field has shown that coupling drug molecules onto nanotechnologies results in more effective therapies with higher drug quantities reaching the tumour .
The Keele Nanopharmaceutics group at ISTM are designing a wealth of theranostic agents for the imaging and treatment of pancreatic tumours . As the fourth leading cancer in the western world , less than one-third of pancreatic cancer patients will survive over five years after diagnosis . The gold standard treatment for pancreatic cancer is the use of gemcitabine , unfortunately , this chemotherapeutic agent proves effective in only 23.8 % of patients with the only alternative being surgical removal of the localised tumour . The treatment of pancreatic cancer is limited due to the lack of drug penetration through the solid tumours formed . In order to overcome this problem , higher drug doses are increasingly required in order for therapy to be successful . As a result , patients experience a greater degree and extent of side effects , such as increased risk of infection , bruising and bleeding , anaemia , hair loss , etc . These side effects result from the whole body circulation and lack of targeting of these toxic drug agents which can affect all areas in the body . It is intended that this novel approach will lead to the earlier treatment of pancreatic tumours and , consequently , to better patient outcomes .
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The cutting-edge work in these areas is challenging traditional approaches and pushing past current boundaries in cancer diagnosis and treatment .
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