This device is apparently smaller than a grain of rice.
Houston Methodist researchers have developed an implantable nanofluidic device that could shrink pancreatic cancer tumors. Pancreatic cancer is one of the fiercest and most difficult cancers to cure. The research team discovered a means to administer immunotherapy straight into the tumor through a tinier device than a grain of rice. The Small Device NDES The team delivered CD40 monoclonal antibodies (mAb), a promising immunotherapeutic agent, using their implantable nanofluidic device called nanofluidic drug-eluting seed (NDES). They discovered that continuous low-dose delivery of the CD40 mAb reduced tumors at a dosage four times lower than that of conventional systemic immunotherapy. This was learned through experiments using murine models. "One of the most exciting findings was that even though the NDES device was only inserted in one of two tumors in the same animal model, we noted shrinkage in the tumor without the device," Corrine Ying Xuan Chua, Ph.D., co-corresponding author of the study, said in a statement. "This means that local treatment with immunotherapy was able to activate the immune response to target other tumors. In fact,…