Today, many chemotherapies, these treatments which allow the destruction of cancerous cells and which are very aggressive products, are administered intravenously. These are injections that must be done in the hospital. To reduce this constraint: there are already certain oral chemotherapies, by tablets, but they do not work for all cancers. Another solution would be to be able to inject these chemotherapies in subcutaneous mode, an injection under the skin without looking for a vein, because this less invasive gesture can be done at home.
Some subcutaneous injections exist, but they remain marginal because most anti-cancer active ingredients tend to stagnate under the skin. However, very irritating, they damage the tissues around the point of injection but without spreading in the body. This is why the work just published by French researchers, attached to the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Paris Saclay, is encouraging.
They have indeed succeeded in treating mice suffering from breast cancer with such an injection and chemotherapy containing taxol, an active ingredient commonly used to treat breast, ovarian or prostate cancer in particular.
The trick is that they have coupled the active principle of chemotherapy, which normally is not soluble and stagnates under the skin, with another molecule: a polymer, which is very soluble. It is therefore a bit like attaching a float to the anti-cancer, which can, in this way, cross the tissues of the skin, through the blood capillaries, and reach the general circulation.
Once in the blood, the hydrophilic polymer is detached and it is evacuated by the kidneys. In mice, the efficacy is even better than with intravenous administration, explains Julien Nicolas, research director at the CNRS and main author of the study. After these promising results in animals, the technique must therefore still prove its effectiveness in humans. Clinical trials could start in 2024.