Calcium phosphate ceramics as drug-delivery system for anticancer therapy

In the present paper the synthesis of P-TCP powder and the design of porous and dense ceramics blocks to be used as drug delivery system were examined. Powder and material preparation methodologies were carefully investigated: 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was loaded on TCP porous and dense blocks and compacted powders using a vacuum adsorption technique and the addition of various organic fillers to modulate the release kinetic was performed. Our results show that the release can be modulated between 2 and 30 days depending on the different combinations of experimental variables (ceramic microstructure, organic additives, drug load, etc).