Size matters in drug delivery
Combining two strategies that are designed to improve the results of cancer treatment — angiogenesis inhibitors and nanomedicines — may only be successful if the smallest nanomedicines are used. A new study led by researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has found that normalizing blood vessels within tumors, which improves the delivery of standard chemotherapy drugs, can actually block the delivery of larger nanotherapy molecules. “We found that vascular normalization only increases the delivery of the smallest nanomedicines to cancer cells,” says lead author Vikash P. Chauhan, a graduate student in bioengineering at SEAS. “We also showed that the smallest nanomedicines are inherently better than larger nanomedicines at penetrating tumors, suggesting that smaller nanomedicines may be ideal for cancer therapy.” The results have been published in Nature Nanotechnology. Angiogenesis, the tumor-driven creation of new blood vessels, provides growing cancers with a food source —...