3D printed Biosponge adsorbers for capturing chemotherapy drugs before they spread through the body

Cancer is becoming the leading cause of death in most developed nations. Despite efforts to develop targeted and personalized cancer therapeutics, dosing of the cancer chemotherapeutics is limited by toxic side effects. During intra-arterial chemotherapy infusion to a target organ, typically, more than 50-90% of the injected drug is not trapped in the target organ and bypasses the tumor to general circulation, causing toxicities in distant locations.

In the context of reducing the toxicity of chemotherapy, we have designed, built, and deployed porous adsorbers for capturing chemotherapy drugs before they spread through the body. The porosity was obtained by 3D printing of lattice structures. The surface of porous cylinders was coated with an ion-containing nanostructured block polymer which is responsible for capturing doxorubicin, a widely used chemotherapy drug with significant toxic side effects. The charge concentration and water uptake in the biosponge adsorbers are systematically changed to achieve high binding capacity and fast kinetics. We aim to understand the mechanism of ionic drug transport in these biosponge adsorbers and establish the design principles for highly selective polymers. Using a swine model, our initial design enables the capture of 69 % of the administered drug without any adverse effects. Additional improvement may be obtained by changing the chemical composition of the selective membrane layer and controlling the lattice structure and size with elastomers. The proposed approach can help patients fight cancer.