Research by the San Francisco-based company Shasqi and the University at Albany's department of chemistry in New York may have found a new sarcoma treatment, according to a study published in the American Chemical Society's journal ACS Central Science.
Here are five takeaways:
1. Last year, around 12,000 people were diagnosed with soft-tissue sarcomas — and around 5,000 died from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.
2. At present, the main treatment option for sarcomas is a combination of surgery and chemotherapy.
3. The researchers hoped to limit toxic damage to a patient's body by only using chemotherapy drugs directly by a tumor site.
4. To accomplish this goal, the researchers developed technology that preimplants biomaterial near a tumor, to concentrate chemotherapy agents at the location.
5. This study was conducted on mice. The mice that were treated with this new technology experienced fewer side effects than associated with traditional care, which suggests that using low toxicity therapies may be more effective.