A drug that doesn't normally work well and were able to make tumors shrink because of the way we delivered it into the tumors. It is difficult to penetrate tumors with medication because they lack blood vessels, and the tumors spread quickly. In the new study, Translational researchers tested a version of their device which is just 6 millimeters in diameter on mice with human pancreatic tumors. The device is implanted through surgery. Translational medicine and electrical power through a port that is accessed outside of the body, similar to an infusion pump or insulin pump and it is powered by a battery or as a plug-in to an electrical outlet.

Other mice received chemotherapy intravenously like people do. The researchers found that tumors shrunk in all the mice with the device and in none of the mice that got the IV treatment. Researchers could not analyze how long the mice lived.

Even if the device works in people, there are limitations. It can't treat widespread cancer, but it could potentially be used to provide relief via medication to patients and it might be used to shrink tumors so it is easily removed by surgery. They also think it could give new directions to treat tumors such as breast cancer and head and neck cancer.