Evaluation of drug delivery and drug testing platforms for breast cancer therapy

Breast cancer remains one of the most diagnosed cancers in women, where 1 in 8 develop breast cancer in the United States. Breast conserving surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy are costly with harmful side effects that can affect the patient years after treatment. To overcome these effects, researchers have investigated polymeric nanoparticles for controlled drug release and cell targeting capabilities. However, current in vivo models do not fully emulate biochemical and biophysical phenomena observed in breast cancer to test the efficacy of drug delivery vehicles. We hypothesize that breast tumor-on-a-chip microfluidic devices can simulate the tumor microenvironment and complex phenomena observed in vivo. In this work, drug-loaded chitosan/polylactide nanoparticles were fabricated and tested for their drug delivery potential in two-dimensional (2D) and tumor-on-a-chip three-dimensional (3D) platforms. Stem cell cytotoxicity, drug encapsulation, in vitro drug release and breast cancer viability after treatment with drug-loaded nanoparticles in 2D and 3D were evaluated.