Alcohol-based jelly implant could kill cancer cells

A jelly-like implant made from alcohol could destroy cancerous tumours when injected into the body, a study by Duke University in North Carolina has found, achieving a 100% success rate when trialled in mice.

The alcohol-based jelly implant was tested on mice, and saw 100% of tumours disappear after eight days

To make the implant, scientists mixed ethanol with ethyl cellulose, widely used as a thickening agent in the food industry and to coat medicines, to create a jelly-like substance, as reported by The Daily Mail.

This is then implanted directly into the middle of the tumours in seven mice, with the team measuring the size of the cancerous growth after eight days.

As the implant comes into contact with moisture, it slowly dissolves over a period of a week, releasing tiny amounts of pure ethanol, which destroys tumour cells by poisoning vital proteins they need to replicate.

All seven mice injected with the implant saw their tumours disappear, while of those mice whose tumour’s were simply injected with alcohol four out of seven saw their tumours disappear.

The implant, developed at Duke University in North Carolina, has so far only been tested on mice, but could lead to alcohol being used more widely to treat cancerous tumours.

“While surgery is at the foundation of cancer treatment, its access is limited in low-income countries,” explained the team of scientists, publishing their work in Scientific Reports. “Here, we describe development of a low-cost alternative therapy based on intratumoral ethanol injection suitable for resource-limited settings.”

While using alcohol to “drown” cancer calls has been known to be an effective way of killing cancer cells, a large amount of alcohol is needed to have the desired effect. Furthermore, by injecting the body with pure ethanol, you also risk destroying the healthy tissue surrounding the tumour. Consequently, the method has only been used on tumours that are contained within a ‘capsule’, preventing alcohol from leaking into the rest of the body.

This new implant goes some way to overcoming that problem, with small amounts of alcohol released over a longer period of time and thus reducing the risk to neighbouring healthy cells. Another advantage of this treatment is that ethanol is very cheap.

“Scientists have already harnessed ethanol as a treatment for some cancers,” said Dr Justine Alford of Cancer Research UK. “In this study, they tweaked the technique to stop it leaking out from the tumour. If trials show it is safe and effective, it could be an option in the future for some cancers where surgery isn’t possible.”