We can hack our immune cells to fight cancer | Elizabeth Wayne
After decades of research and billions spent in clinical trials, we still have a problem with cancer drug delivery, says biomedical engineer Elizabeth Wayne.
========== After decades of research and billions of dollars
spent in clinical trials, we still have a problem
with cancer drug delivery. We still give patients chemotherapy, which is so non-specific that even though
it kills the cancer cells, it kind of kills
the rest of your body, too. And yes, we have developed
more selective drugs, but it's still a challenge
to get them into the tumor, and they end up accumulating
in the other organs as well or passing through your urine, which is a total waste. And fields like mine have emerged where we try to encapsulate these drugs to protect them as they
travel through the body. But these modifications cause problems that we make more modifications to fix. So what I'm really trying to say
is we need a better drug delivery system. And I propose, ...