UNAIR NEWS – Cancer is known as a deadly disease. It is due to the effects and the painful side effects of cancer therapy (chemotherapy) for patients. In Indonesia, breast cancer is a type of cancer with the highest prevalence, 12 / 100.000 women (Ministry of Health RI – 2015).
Doxorubicin can be used as a chemotherapy for breast cancer patients through intravenous injection. It is beneficial because the drug can work quickly. It also has disadvantages as it causes necrosis and ulceration due to injection, and it is also non-targeted drug, resulting in systemic side effects, and it takes time to treat them if there is an allergy.
From their concern towards breast cancer chemotherapy patients, five students of the Faculty of Pharmacy Universitas Airlangga, who are members of the Exacta Research Student Creativity Research Program (PKMPE), Ayu Tarantika Indreswari, Vita Fitria, Galuh Damar, Nurul Azizah, and Beatrice develop patches which contains Doxorubicin which can be attached to the skin of the breast.
The Doxorubicin patch uses a transdermal drug delivery system and assisted by an electric current (iontophoresis), so Doxorubicin can penetrate the skin and enter the breast cancer tissue. In ensuring the quality, safety, and comfort of using Doxorubicin Patch, various laboratory tests are performed, such as weight uniformity test, diameter uniformity, patch thickness uniformity, pH test, moisture content, tensile strength, FTIR, and DSC.
Ayu Tarantika Indreswari, team Leader, accompanied by four colleagues, explained the advantages of their Doxorubicin Patch. The use is easy and not painful for patients, the target is specific to breast cancer tissue so the side effects of chemotherapy is less, and if there are signs of allergy the patch can be removed from the skin of the patient.
“Our research is still in laboratory research phase. Hopefully in the future, we want this research to continue until the application of Doxorubicin transdermal reservoir can support the safety, effectiveness, and comfort of chemotherapy in breast cancer patients, “said Ayu.
In fact, they said that this research has been awarded as one of the best ideas by ISPE (International Society Pharmaceutical Engineering) which is one of the professional forum of Pharmaceutical Industry, last May in Jakarta. “In fact we got offer for further research in some Pharmaceutical Industries,” Ayu added.
“Therefore we hope this research does not stop at research, but in the future it can be really developed and produced in an industrial scale so that pharmaceutical industry in Indonesia leads in cancer drugs innovation, especially for patch-based breast cancer treatment,” said Ayu ended explanation. (*)
Editor: Bambang Bes
