For advanced stages of head and neck cancer, one of the best treatments is so aggressive that it could bring tooth decay, speech loss, constant nausea or all of the above.
For advanced stages of head and neck cancer, one of the best treatments is so aggressive that it could bring tooth decay, speech loss, constant nausea or all of the above.
That’s because the treatment combines two therapies – chemotherapy and radiation – which means double the cancer-killing power, but also double the side effects. A large proportion of the 63,000 Americans diagnosed with head and neck cancer each year are ineligible for this treatment because they are too old or too sick, but most don’t know they have the cancer until after the age of 50.
Purdue University researchers in collaboration with the Indiana University School of Medicine have created a new chemoradiotherapy formulation that they predict should be even more effective than what is available commercially. The formulation shouldn’t produce side effects because all its toxins stay within tumors, rather than leaking into the bloodstream and harming the whole body.
The study, which appears in a recent issue of the Journal of Controlled Release, shows that the formulation is successful in cancer cell culture experiments, in-vivo animal models and mathematical simulations of patient data. Next, the researchers intend to test the formulation in dogs that naturally have head and neck cancer.
Read more at Purdue University
Side effects from chemoradiotherapy are too aggressive for many head and neck cancer patients. A new formulation could both improve the treatment and remove side effects altogether. (Photo credit: Gerd Altmann)
