New 3D printing method delivers cancer drugs directly to tumors

We actually applied this on breast cancer cells and we got some really, really promising data."This paper introduced a new 3D printing concept called FRESH 3D printing. It uses spanlastics as a new nano-drug delivery vehicle for anticancer drug delivery.

Delivering the drug directly to the cancer cell could reduce those side effects, said Chakka and Elom Doe, a third-year doctoral student in pharmaceutical sciences.

"Having the drug in an implant, or in our case, a 3D-printed construct, and placing that construct at the tumor sites means we can concentrate the delivery to the tumor area, instead of throughout the whole body," Doe said.

"Every drug for cancer has to act inside the cell, either on RNA or on DNA or inhibiting a cell pathway," Chakka said. "If the drug is not able to penetrate the cell membrane or be taken up by the cell, the effect of the drug is none.

"But when we put that drug in a nanoparticle, we are also protecting the drug from degradation, so we are actually pushing a good amount of drug molecules into the cell in one go."

Because this method focuses on a single area, it would be especially beneficial in early cancer diagnoses, before the disease has a chance to spread, or metastasize, the researchers said.

While these findings are promising, this lab-based study is only the first step in using spanlastics in cancer treatment, they caution.

"What we did is test how the drug acts in vitro or outside the body," Doe said. "We would have to test it in in-vivo models before we can think of delivering it to patients, and that's not a job you can do in a day."

At the end of those studies, however, the result could be a faster way to fight early cancer diagnoses, Chakka said.

"With this study, we did two things: One is using 3D printing as a fabricating method for a hydrogel-based drug delivery system," he said. "The second one is we demonstrated these drug delivery systems can be effective in killing cancer cells in vitro, but there is still a long way to go."

Source:

University of Mississippi

Journal reference:

Doe, E., et al. (2026). Fresh 3D Printing of Spanlastics Hydrogel for Drug Delivery Applications In Vitro. Pharmaceutical Research. DOI: 10.1007/s11095-026-04068-6. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11095-026-04068-6