QUB tests dissolving 3D-printed patch for skin cancer

A patch pressed against skin could do more than cover a wound. Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast have developed a dissolving 3D-printed microneedle patch that delivers curcumin and 5-fluorouracil at the site of a skin tumor, offering an alternative to repeated topical applications and invasive procedures.

The needles are fine enough to pass through the skin’s outer layer without drawing blood. After application, they dissolve. That gives the treatment a different profile from conventional needles: the drug-carrying structure does not remain as a sharp to remove or discard.

The team printed the microneedles in a single step, mixing both medicines into the printable resin instead of coating them onto pre-made needles. The study reported improved skin penetration, a higher drug load per patch and a controlled two-stage release that could be matched to an individual patient.

So what changes in practice? If the approach can move beyond the laboratory, patients could receive local cancer medicines through a simpler and potentially less painful application, without repeated topical treatment or an invasive procedure. Clinics could also face fewer needle-stick risks and less medical sharps waste. Those benefits remain prospective: no clinical treatment or patient trial is reported here.

Dimitrios A. Lamprou, Chair of Biofabrication and Advanced Manufacturing at Queen’s University Belfast, said dissolving microneedle systems could make cancer-medicine delivery more patient-friendly. Rutuja N. Meshram, the study’s first author and a final-year PhD student in the university’s School of Pharmacy, said the work could support more personalized treatments and safer, more accessible healthcare technologies.