Women who undergo surgery for breast cancer followed by radiation therapy often experience breast deformities that can only be corrected through reconstructive surgery. Researchers at Pitt’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, in collaboration with bioengineers at Carnegie Mellon University, have developed a polymer-based therapy for breast cancer that could serve as an artificial tissue filler after surgery and a clinically effective therapy.

Their findings, based on studies with mice, were presented April 25 at the World Congress on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, held in Pittsburgh’s Westin Convention Center.

“Although radiation therapy is the standard treatment for breast cancer following surgery, it is expensive, time-consuming, and increases the cosmetic deformity caused by surgery,” said the McGowan Center’s Howard D. Edington, a Pitt associate professor of surgery and surgical oncology. “We sought to develop a possible alternative to radiation therapy that would not only release chemotherapy slowly to kill the cancerous cells left behind after surgery but that also would fill in the dimples and sometimes quite significant indentations that are common after breast surgery and radiation.”

To test their idea, the researchers encapsulated a common breast cancer chemotherapy drug, doxorubicin, in tiny beads called microspheres, and then mixed them with a polymer gelatin. Mice with breast cancer tumors were treated by inserting the gel under the skin next to the mammary gland. Researchers found that they could successfully control the delivery of chemotherapy over 30 days and that the tumors were completely eradicated, compared with a control group of mice that were implanted with the gel insert without chemotherapy.

“Through further research and testing, our goal is to develop this into a clinical treatment for women undergoing breast cancer surgery,” said Edington, who also is chief of surgery at Magee-Womens Hospital. “This treatment may help decrease the occurrences of breast deformity. With more studies under our belt, we believe this approach could eventually represent an alternative to breast radiation after surgery.”

According to Edington, clinical trials on women with breast cancer will follow additional laboratory studies. A paper detailing those results will be published in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research.

The study is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense.