Chinese researchers hold out cancer hope with new hydrogel to kill tumours
- Calcium-infused hydrogel improves outcomes from microwave ablation of cancer cells in lab rats and rabbits, Soochow University researchers find
- Clinical trials are awaited for the treatment, which could ease the severity of side effects and curb tumour recurrence
Microwave ablation – which involves using a needle to transmit electromagnetic waves into a tumour to kill cancer cells – is widely used for treating several types of solid tumours, including those caused by pulmonary and colorectal cancer, as well as hepatocellular carcinoma, a type of liver cancer.
However, the treatment in its current form frequently causes side effects and the tumour can sometimes come back.
A newly discovered type of hydrogel, which enables the ablation to work at reduced power and concentrate the microwave heat inside the injected zone, could offer hope against the severity of side effects and tumour recurrence.
Developed by researchers at Soochow University in China’s eastern Jiangsu province, the hydrogel improved the outcome from the conventional microwave ablation treatment in lab animals, according to a recently published study in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances.
Feng Liangzhu, corresponding author of the study and an assistant researcher at Soochow University, explained how microwave ablation works.
