Researchers at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, have developed a method of administering medication to lung cancer patients by inhalation as opposed to the current method of intravenous delivery.
It is hoped that the new system, using a nebuliser to inhale the drugs into the lungs, could avoid harmful side effects associated with damage to healthy cells when drugs are taken intravenously. By using an inhaler, the drugs would be administered much more rapidly and could therefore make treatments more effective and less time-consuming for patients.
Lung cancer is currently the most common cancer in the world and the second most common cancer in the UK, after breast cancer. Over 40,000 new cases are diagnosed in the UK every year with diagnoses and deaths among women being particularly prevalent.
