Research Of Thermoseeds With Drug Delivery Function For Hyperthermia

It is a difficult problem in surgery that cancer cells often spread again after removing operation because it's impossible to eliminate all cancer cells in tissues during operations completely.One method to deal with the case mentioned above is hyperthermia treatment. Magnetic thermoseeds are implanted into cancer tissues, in a alternating magnetic field, thermoseeds can generate heat to make the temperature of cancer tissues stay between 43 and 48℃, and cancer cells can be eliminated. Another method is the use of drug carrier. Anti-cancer drug is loaded in the carrier, then the carrier is implanted in to tumor, so the anti-cancer drug is released at a proper speed consistently. Drug concentration in tumor area is kept to meet the need of treatment, and side effect to human body can be reduced greatly.Hyperthermia is considered as a treatment with no side effect, but only hyperthermia also can not eliminate cancer cells completely. If hyperthermia and drug treatment are combined,a better curative effect will be expectable.With porosifier NH₄HCO₃,porous magnetic LiFe₅O₈-CaO-SiO₂-P₂O₅ ceramic samples coated with bio-active materials were made by sintering.XRD shows that the main composition of the coating is HAP. The layer of HAP can make the samples more bio-active and attached to bones steadily.Magnetometer test shows good magnetism of the LiFe₅O₈-CaO-SiO₂-P₂O₅ ceramic samples, and the samples'specification saturation magnetization and coercive force can reach 32.23A·m²/kg,61Oe respectively. Porosity of the samples seems to have little influence on their Specification saturation magnetization of the samples, while their coercive force change greatly due to different porosity. Put into an alternating magnetic field, the samples generate heat obviously. More quantity of porosifier NH₄HCO₃ leads to larger porosity,and the porosity value can reach 38.89%,which makes the sample be drug carriers. Drug loading and releasing experiments show that porous LiFe₅O₈-CaO-SiO₂-P₂O₅ ceramic samples can work as drug delivery systems. Those samples with larger porosity can carry more drugs, and release drug more quickly. So drug releasing velocity can be controlled by the porosity of thermoseeds.Because of magnetism and drug delivery function of LiFe₅O₈-CaO-SiO₂-P₂O₅ ceramics, it is possible to use the ceramics to make anti-cancer medication an assistance to hyperthermia,and lead to a better curative effect, which is an good idea worth considering to prevent cancer cells from spreading again after removing operation.