Indian Researchers create bandage for Skin Cancer

Bengaluru: The researchers of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) have developed an exclusive bandage to cure skin cancer. A non-invasive method of curing the disease, the bandage is a combination of nanoparticles that are produced using a method called electrospinning.

The most common kind of cancer, Skin Cancer is commonly treated with surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.

The bandage, which is made of magnetic nanofiber uses the treatment of magnetic hyperthermia. In this alternative method of curing skin cancer, the magnetic nanoparticles are used to heat the tumors through external alternating current magnetic fields. Although this technique is quite tough to work with as if the uniform heating is not achieved, it can accumulate in one's body, and cause toxicity. To avoid this, a group of researchers from the Centre for BioSystems Science and Engineering and the Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics (MRDG) at IISc Bangalore, introduced this unique bandage of curing skin cancer.

The nanoparticles are the combination of iron oxide – Fe304, and PCL, polymer dubbed polycaprolactone stuck on the surgical tape. The tumor is cured by the heat that is generated by the high oscillating magnetic field.

To test the effectiveness of this bandage, two experiments were conducted by the researchers. One was the Vivo on mice, with an artificially produced skin cancer, whereas the other was Vitro on the human cancer lines. The Vitro and Vivo test took time to be effective. In the Vivo test, it was observed that the healthy tissue was undamaged, without any inflammation or burns.

"The elevated temperature at the treatment site enables heat to penetrate the tumor cells, rupturing the compact random vasculatures of the tumors," said Shilpee Jain, a senior author of the paper. However, further studies are required to test the effectiveness of the method on a larger scale, before pre-clinical and clinical applications.

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