Poison the tumor with oxygen!

Purdue University researchers have developed and tested a miniature oxygen generator designed for implantation in malignant tumors. The use of such a device in clinical practice will significantly increase the effectiveness of traditional methods of radio and chemotherapy. (The figure shows a schematic representation of the generator.)

The fact is that the effectiveness of antitumor treatment depends very much on the presence of oxygen in the tumor tissue. At the same time, many tumors, such as pancreatic and cervical cancer, are characterized by low oxygen levels (hypoxia), which causes their immunity to therapy.

The new oxygen microgenerator is an electronic device that receives an ultrasonic signal and uses its energy to hydrolyze water to form oxygen and hydrogen.

The device, which is about 8 mm long and a little more than 1 mm thick (in the picture – on the right), is placed in a tube (on the left), which can be inserted into the tumor using a biopsy needle.

The developers have already successfully tested the generator on pancreatic tumors known for their hypoxicity (with a volume of about 1 ^cm3) implanted in mice. Experiments have shown that the generator saturates the tumor with oxygen in less than 10 minutes, which significantly accelerates the process of its destruction using traditional methods of therapy.

The developers have already applied for a patent for their invention and in the future plan to improve it in order to increase its practicality in terms of production and use in clinical practice.

Article by Maleki et al. An Ultrasonically-Powered Implantable Micro Oxygen Generator (IMOG) is published in the August issue of Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru based on materials from Purdue University:
Tiny oxygen generators boost effectiveness of anticancer treatment.

01.09.2011