Core competence | Radiochemistry and biomedical applications | |
Method | n/a | |
Contact person |
Primary osteosarcoma (commonly referred too as bone cancer) accounts for 0.2% of all cancers with a mortality of 56%. Secondary bone metastasis is more prominent as 40-80% of breast and prostate cancer patients develop this painful situation.Forms of treatment include surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is the most preferred form of treatment because the drug is distributed hence more effective in treating tumour lesions throughout the body. Numerous drugs are available but have a limited success due to poor target of the lesions ratios. Bisphosphonates (agent available for treatment) have a high selectivity for tumour bone lesions but are however, less potent if administered into the body system without the support of selective carrier system. This is due to the fact that bisphosphonates are metabolized by the hepatic system, then excreted before reaching the targeted tumor lesions. We wish to report here the synthesis of bisphosphonates conjugated double wall carbon nanotubes. We anticipate that the carbon material transport system will ensure that bisphosphonates reach their target sites as passive accumulation can be achieved through the enhanced permeability retention (EPR) effect where particles of a size less than 40 kDa cannot escape the normal vasculature but do so in tumour lesions where the blood vessels are ruptured. This reduces toxicity as less drug dosage will be administered into the body system.