Researchers at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill have designed an implant that precisely supplies chemotherapy drugs to hard-to-reach pancreatic tumors, using an electric field.

When a second electrode is pinned to the side of the body or implanted inside, an electric field can be generated, driving the drugs out of the reservoir and into the tumor.

A potential application of this device will be to shrink large, inoperable tumors, pulling them away from vital organs and enabling surgeons to access them.

One reason that pancreatic tumors are so difficult to treat is that their poor blood supply limits the access of bloodborne chemotherapies to the cancerous tissue.