The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

Post-surgical treatment of brain tumors by the gold standard of care is still ineffective. Tumor cells that deeply infiltrated into the brain are the main causes of recurrence, which hinders complete recovery of brain tumors. Here, we present promising drug delivery platforms for preventing the recurrence of brain tumors. First, a flexible, sticky, and biodegradable drug-loaded patch integrated with wireless electronics is proposed. The flexible and bifacially-designed sticky device allows conformal adhesion on the brain and provides extended drug delivery to brain tumors while minimizing drug leakage to the cerebrospinal fluid. Second, an injectable thermo-responsive hydrogel nanocomposite is presented. It is injected as liquid state, and be promptly solidified in deep brain region to form soft intracortical drug reservoir. Both platforms exploit external magnetic fields to wirelessly accelerate drug diffusion through heat generation, enabling penetrative drug delivery.