The most disturbing issue regarding the cancer treatment is the high rate of cancer readmission after surgery and common therapies. But, the Chinese scientists believe they’ve solved this out by creating a new hydrogel for the removal of the remaining cancerous tissues. Besides, they believe their anticancer hydrogel is fighting against cancer readmission.
Chinese researchers used black phosphorus to produce the hydrogel
A science team at the Shenzen’s Institute of Advanced Technology, in China, has recently issued their study’s report to the journal Advanced Science.
The researchers expressed the importance of the black phosphorus use in the photothermal therapy against cancer. In fact, their hydrogel contains black phosphorus.
Nowadays, many cancer patients avoid chemo and radiotherapy due to their very negative side effects and complications. Therefore, other forms of anticancer therapies emerged and started to be widely accepted. Among them, there is the photothermal therapy.
“Photothermal therapy can treat cancer with minimal invasion, even if it has been suppressed for clinical adoption due to the insufficient biodegradability of therapeutic agents, and our hydrogel solves this problem,” said Yu Xuefeng, the science team’s leader and the leading author of the study.
The Chinese science team is now waiting for the hydrogel to get official acceptance
Yu Xuefeng and his colleagues consider they improved the photothermal therapy by introduced nanolayers of black phosphorus in a hydrogel sensitive at temperatures in order to completely eliminate the residual cancerous tissues during the postoperative photothermal therapy.
Yu explained that the newly developed hydrogel has shown positive results in the in vitro and in vivo tests.
“Now the hydrogel is a patent pending product, our team is applying for a clinical adoption license with the hope that the product can be applied soon in clinical uses,” admitted Yu.
Besides, the hydrogel, based on black phosphorus, has been proved to possess antibacterial properties, therefore, it is able to protect patients against infections, while it is enhancing the beneficial effects of the anticancer photothermal therapy.