Avoiding degradation of chemotherapy drugs: is graphene the answer?

The reactivity of chemotherapy drugs Sadly, chemotherapy is an important part of many peoples’ lives – approximately 850,000 people are undergoing treatment in the USA alone. The treatment typically involves the delivery of a cocktail of aggressive drugs into a patient’s bloodstream, with the aim of inhibiting the development of cancer cells. Unfortunately, this drug cocktail often causes damage to healthy cells, including blood-forming cells in the bone marrow, hair follicles, cells in the mouth, digestive tract and reproductive system. Some drugs also cause damage to the heart, kidneys, bladder, lungs and nervous system [1]. In short, chemotherapy drugs are typically very reactive, and while they play an important part in cancer treatment, their reactivity with noncancerous cells is a major cause for concern. Exciting new targeted drug delivery methods are being proposed (see, for example, [2]), but these developments are still far from being put into general use. Chemotherapy drugs are not just reactive toward cells, they are reactive agents more generally. This means that we should also be concerned by their interaction with all materials which they may encounter in normal use – for example, containers, needles, valves and the catheters through which the drugs are administered to the patient. Surprisingly, such concerns have been generally overlooked – few studies of the electronic properties of chemotherapy drugs [3] and the mechanics of catheter degradation have been carried out [4], but the chemical reactivity remains unknown. In our recent work, we have tried to address this by asking, do chemotherapy drugs damage delivery apparatus? Does the delivery apparatus damage the drugs? and can nanoscale coatings offer protection?