A new drug delivery system for local cancer chemotherapy using cisplatin and chitin.

A new drug delivery system for local cancer chemotherapy was developed by chemical combination of chitin and cisplatin. When this material (Plachitin) was implanted in mice, high cisplatin concentrations were measured in the tissue around Plachitin for more than eight weeks without any nephrotoxicity. Local application of Plachitin improved the survival of mice previously implanted with Ehrlich tumor (p < 0.05). The present study indicates that Plachitin is a useful local agent for solid tumors due to its slow and sustained release of a large amount of cisplatin around the tumor without systemic side effects.