Bone regeneration material with chemo inside; a promising duo? Research on bone regeneration material with chemo after the removal of bone tumors

When bone tumors are removed the resulting cavities are often filled with material to stimulate bone growth. Can this material be combined with a drug that fights cancer? Researchers from the Radboudumc published their findings in Acta Biomaterialia.

The cavity created after removal of a bone tumor is often filled with granules, with synthetic grains of calcium phosphate or other ceramic. These granules stimulate the regeneration of bone, making it stronger again. Jeroen van den Beucken, who researches regenerative biomaterials at Radboudumc: “Unfortunately, the tumor often returns. That made us to investigate whether we could also 'load' the granules with chemotherapy.”

Local effect

For the research, published in Acta Biomaterialia, he focused on materials used primarily in orthopedics (MBCP®) or dentistry (Bio-Oss®). As a cancer drug, he chose the widely used cisplatin. To both bone materials, cisplatin adsorbs well. This basically creates material that not only regenerates bone but also has a local chemotherapeutic effect on the remaining tumor cells. “That's a big advantage,” says van den Beucken, ”because with the usual course of treatment, cisplatin gets everywhere in the body. Now it works mainly where it needs to work. Of course, a little bit of the drug eventually ends up in the liver and kidneys, but in much lower concentrations. Consequently, it also evokes less undesired side effects.”

Interesting development

There is not yet an animal model in which Van den Beucken can simultaneously test the effects of bone regeneration and local chemotherapy. “That's why we did that separately,” he says. “Doing so, we saw that adsorbed cisplatin does not interfere with bone regeneration. And the granule appears to gradually release the adsorbed cisplatin, so it works against cancer cells that are still locally present there.” Based on this experimental research, further development of this combination is of interest. “Definitely,” says Van den Beucken. “First of all, both granules and cisplatin have long been used in medicine. Should further research prove positive, that will probably make market entry a lot easier.”

To the clinic?

Further research may take place with Biomatlante, which markets the orthopedic granule MBCP®. “For the now-published study, the company selflessly provided test material and has taken note of our research results with interest,” says Van den Beucken. “Contacts are currently underway to see if we can continue the research to bring it further to the clinic.”

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Paper in Acta BioMaterialia: Cisplatin-Functionalized Dual-Functional Bone Substitute Granules for Bone Defect Treatment after Bone Tumor Resection - Zhule Wang, Mark Kregel, Jean-Luc Meijers, Jordi Franch, Vincent M.J.I Cuijpers, David Ahlers, Uwe Karst, Piet Slootweg, Ingrid CM Van Der Geest, Sander CG Leeuwenburgh, Jeroen JJP van den Beucken

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