Nowadays, controllable drug release is a vitally important strategy for cancer treatment and usually realized using implanting biocompatible devices. However, these devices need to be removed by another surgery after the function fails, which brings the risks of inflammation or potential death. In this article, a biodegradable flexible electronic device with controllable drug (paclitaxel) release was proposed for cancer treatment. The device is powered by an external alternating magnetic field to generate internal resistance heat and promote drug release loaded on the substrate. Moreover, the device temperature can even reach to 65 °C, which was sufficient for controllable drug release. This device also has similar mechanical properties to human tissues and can autonomously degrade due to the structure design of the circuit and degradable compositions. Finally, it is confirmed that the device has a good inhibitory effect on the proliferation of breast cancer cells (MCF-7) and could be completely degraded in vitro. Thus, its great biodegradability and conformity can relieve patients of second operation, and the device proposed in this paper provides a promising solution to complete conquest of cancer in situ.
Keywords: biodegradable flexible electronics; cancer treatment; cell experiments; drug release; wireless energy supply.