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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		Filtering out the bad effects of chemotherapy
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:04
	Publish Date:		2017-02-21 18:00:00
	Description:		Over the years, cancer treatment has improved with minimally-invasive surgeries and more localized chemotherapy techniques. But even if chemotherapy can be localized and delivered directly to a tumor, over half of the drug can pass the tumor and become systemic. "It goes all over your body. The current popular drugs, they are effective, but they are also very toxic. So, they have bad side effects." That’s materials scientist Chelsea Chen of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She collaborated with a University of California, San Francisco physician to come up with a device that can filter out the toxins. "What he came up with is that he wants to place this device at the draining vein exiting the tumor, so this device can catch the excessive chemotherapy before it enters the body circulation and this way, it further reduces the systemic toxicity of the drugs. So we designed this device that we call the ‘ChemoFilter’." Chen says it may be ready for treatment in a few years.
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