How to Exploit 3-D Printing for Improved Cancer Treatment

3-D printing could be used to fine-tune the delivery of medicine according to the needs of patients undergoing interventional radiology procedures.

3-D printing could play an active role in crafting devices such as catheters, stents, and filaments to the exact size and shape of the patient in need. In a study from the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), researchers printed bioactive devices that can deliver antibiotics and chemotherapeutic medications to targeted areas in cell cultures, according to the SIR. The study was born out of a need for more personalized medicine, with the hope that these patient-specific devices can deliver drugs faster and more efficiently, providing a much more effective alternative to many of the one-size-fits-all devices that many doctors use in treatment today.

3-D printing technology has emerged as a quintessential tool as researchers look for alternative ways to generate various medical devices, specifically in environments where materials and financial resources might be limited. Coming up with the materials continues to be an issue that needs addressing, as many of the suitable printing materials needed in the medtech industry have been fairly limited. For the most part, using 3-D printing technology has resulted in a myriad of different prototypes with varying potential, but bridging the gap between prototype and production continues to hold the technology back from having any sort of significant impact in the medtech world.

Using resorbable bioplastics, researchers from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUH) looked to create bioactive filaments, chemotherapy beads, catheters, and stents containing antibiotics or chemotherapeutic agents, to see if they could inhibit the growth of bacteria and cancer cells. When testing the printed materials, researchers found that the devices inhibited bacterial growth, and when used with chemotherapeutic agents, inhibited the growth of cancer cells as well.

Last year, researchers at Louisiana Tech University announced they had made progress in using consumer-grade 3-D printers to develop custom implants with antibacterial and chemotherapeutic compounds for targeted drug delivery. The researchers hailed the breakthrough as the first time that 3-D printing had been used for the application.

While the use of catheters and stents is common, 3-D printing technology could be the necessary tool that allows doctors to craft devices for specific patient populations that have proven difficult to treat, such as children or the obese. Children often provide a challenge because of their smaller stature, while the obese can prove equally as difficult given their larger body size. Crafting devices that can be specifically tailored to each patient can help eliminate a lot of these difficulties, and improve patient care by providing more effective treatment on an individual basis.

3-D printing technology also becomes extremely useful in developing nations where resources are limited, and obtaining crucial devices like catheters and stents—while not necessarily expensive—can still be difficult. Making these devices available through 3-D printing not only makes them more accessible, but also could provide better treatment for patients in those areas with specific treatment needs.

For now, the research team plans to continue exploring the capabilities of printing medical devices and instruments with the eventual goal of receiving approval to use the printed materials on human patients.