3D printed personalised long-acting implants for effective cancer treatment

According to WHO, cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, with nearly 1 in 6 deaths been due to cancer. The principal modes of cancer management are surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and pharmaceutical agents. However, there are many side effects from extant treatments e.g., invasiveness of surgery, and with other treatments being systemic in nature; therefore, only a small fraction of the drugs reaches the tumour site. Due to the short period of actions, repeated doses are often required, which can lead to exacerbation of side effects and inconvenience. Due to these obstacles, targeted or localised release technology coupled with long-acting treatment functionality is a key research theme to replace systemic administration therapies and show potential for advancing cancer treatment including capability of personalizing the treatment. One especially promising therapeutic option gaining prominence is the use of multifunctional implants combining tumour-killing ability while promoting bone resorption/growth. Therefore, the main goal of this project is to investigate new approaches for targeted long-acting drug release for effective cancer therapies based on 3D printed drug-loaded implants.