Implantable drug delivery device for ovarian cancer

Reducing complications

The delivery of chemotherapy drugs for ovarian cancer currently requires injecting the drugs via a catheter many times, over several weeks. The catheter creates a high risk for infection. This project will develop a device that can be implanted in the peritoneum once and deliver the drugs over a long time period, in order to reduce infections and complications for patients. Preliminary studies in mice demonstrate that the device is able to maintain treatment efficacy while reducing local and systemic toxicity. The ability to confirm improved results, as compared to bolus drug injections, on a large scale will allow the subsequent design and testing of a human-scale device.