Abstract Background It may be impossible to perform cancer surgery with free margins in the presence of an unresectable structure. Local drug treatment after surgery has been proposed to increase the rate of tumor control. Methods Multi-nanolayers (10-330 nm) were generated by a low-pressure (375mTorr) inductively coupled plasma (13.56 MHz) reactor for anticancer drug delivery by the deposition of polycaprolactone-polyethylene glycol multistack barrier on the collagen membrane (100 μm thickness). Carboplatin (300 μg/cm2) was used for the in vitro and in vivo investigations. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (15 keV), scanning electron microscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry were used to detect the presence of carboplatin in the nanolayer, the tumor sample and the culture medium. Preclinical studies were performed on ovarian (OVCAR-3NIH) and colon (CT26) cancer cell lines as xenografts (45 days) and allografts (23 days) in Swiss-nude (n = 6) and immunocompetent BALB/cByJ mice (n = 24), respectively. Results The loading of carboplatin or other drugs between the nanofilm on the collagen membrane did not modify the mesh complex architecture or the drug properties. Drugs were detectable on the membrane for more than 2 weeks in the in vitro analysis and more than 10 days in the in vivo analysis. Cytotoxic mesh decreased cell adherence (down 5.42-fold) and induced cancer cell destruction (up to 7.87-fold). Implantation of the mesh on the mouse tumor nodule modified the cell architecture and decreased the tumor size (50.26%) compared to the control by inducing cell apoptosis. Conclusion Plasma technology allows a mesh to be built with multi-nanolayer anticancer drug delivery on collagen membranes.
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