Nanotechnology Facilitates Diagnosis and Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

Posted by Vivian creative on April 18th, 2022

Pancreatic cancer is one of the leading lethal diseases in the USA, with a low five-year relative survival rate after diagnosis. This cancer is derived from damage to the DNA of pancreatic cells, which will transform into tumor cells and grow abnormally leveraging the nutrients available in the pancreas. The diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer could be delayed because symptoms only emerge after the initial stages of disease progression and they are indistinct compared with other less severe disorders. Inefficient diagnostic and limited treatment options have collectively contributed to the late detection of this cancer. But the occurrence of nanotechnology seems to fuel the advancement of cancer research, allowing early cancer diagnostic development and effective treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Nanotechnology in Early Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis

It has been studied that major long-term survivors (over 5 years) of pancreatic cancer were early diagnosed with resectable tumors and suitable for curative surgery, indicating that early detection and intervention of this cancer may increase the overall survival rate. However, the lack of serum biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity makes it a challenge to accurately detect early pre-cancerous lesions as well as to distinguish benign pancreas diseases and cancer.

Nanotechnology-based diagnostic platforms, featured faster, more accurate, cost-effective, fewer detection limits, and more reliable biomarker detection systems, are anticipated to revolutionize the pancreatic cancer diagnostics field. Nanomaterials for in vitro diagnostics, including magnetic particles, gold nanoparticles, quantum dots, and carbon nanotubes, are widely applied to increase the sensitivity of early detecting tumor biomarkers and the efficiency of treating pancreatic cancer.

Nanotechnology-based in vitro diagnostic platforms now have been regarded as powerful tools for early cancer detection, prevention, and diagnosis with additional sensitivity.

Nanotechnology in Pancreatic Cancer Treatment

Besides early cancer diagnostics, nanotechnology is also applied in developing novel therapeutics for pancreatic cancer and has received increasing attention in recent years. To address debilitating off-target toxicity, poor tumor bioavailability, and unfavorable pharmacokinetics issues caused by many chemotherapeutic agents, nanotechnology was applied to develop nanoparticles as efficient carriers for chemotherapeutic drug delivery considering nanoparticles can enhance penetration, stability, and half-life in the circulation of drugs.

New studies suggest that nanoparticles-based drug delivery systems can significantly improve therapeutic outcomes of pancreatic cancer as this cancer is highly resistant to radiation and chemotherapy. For instance, nanoparticles that are mainly comprised of biodegradable materials can effectively deliver chemotherapeutic agents to the target tumor sites without triggering the p-glycoprotein (P-gp) system in the tumor cells that pumps out those anticancer drugs.

In addition, the ability of nano-diagnostics to sensitively and specifically detect cancer biomarkers also provides a chance to detect recurrences and monitor treatment responses. Therefore, nanotechnology has promising potential applications in the diagnosis and therapeutic agents delivery for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.