Advances in Skin Cancer Treatment

Radiotherapy, a common cancer treatment, involves the use of directed, high-energy radiation. So to heal one form of skin cancer, scientists are now developing a type of radiotherapeutic bandage. Though tested only on animals so far, the bandage delivers radiotherapy directly to a squamous cell carcinoma, and might someday replace existing treatments, according to University of North Texas researchers. Caused by too much sun exposure, squamous cell carcinoma is one form of non-melanoma skin cancer. It's a common malignancy in the United States, and an estimated 700,000 cases of SCC are diagnosed each year. Radiation therapy is useful and effective, it requires cumbersome equipment, specialized instruments, and special facilities, the researchers said. As a possible less-invasive, more functional treatment, Dr. Anthony J. Di Pasqua, assistant professor at UNT College of Pharmacy, and his colleagues explored a radiotherapeutic bandage for SCC.
To create the radiotherapeutic bandage, Bhuvaneswari Koneru, a graduate student, and Yi Shi, a post-doctoral research associate, used nanoparticles and a technique called “electrospinning,” which uses an electrical charge to create thin fibers from a liquid. Prior to applying the bandages, they activated radioactive polymers, which were embedded within the fabric. Then, the research team placed the bandages on mice with SCC for one hour. Over a 15-day period, the team measured each animal's tumor size to see how effective the bandage was. On the 15th day, three out of 10 mice in the radioactive bandage-treatment group had complete tumor elimination while the other seven in the same group had significantly smaller tumors.
Di Pasqua and colleagues will study this technology in larger animals to gauge whether it might work for humans.