Hayashi, M., Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
Silanikove, N., Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States, Biology of Lactation Laboratory, Institute of Animal Science, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel
Chang, X., Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
Ravi, R., Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
Pham, V., Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
Baia, G., Personalized Oncology, Champions Oncology, Baltimore, MD, United States
Paz, K., Personalized Oncology, Champions Oncology, Baltimore, MD, United States
Brait, M., Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
Sidransky, D., Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
Koch, W.M., Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States

Triple negative breast cancer has an extremely poor prognosis when chemotherapy is no longer effective. To overcome drug resistance, novel drug delivery systems based on nanoparticles have had remarkable success. We produced a novel nanoparticle component ‘MDC’ from milk-derived colloid. In order to evaluate the anti-cancer effect of MDC, we conducted in vitro and in vivo experiments on cancer cell lines and a primary tumor derived breast xenograft. Doxorubicin (Dox) conjugated to MDC (MDC-Dox) showed higher cancer cell growth inhibition than MDC alone especially in cell lines with high EGFR expression. In a mouse melanoma model, MDC-Dox significantly suppressed tumor growth when compared with free Dox. Moreover, in a primary tumor derived breast xenograft, one of the mice treated with MDC-Dox showed partial regression, while mice treated with free Dox failed to show any suppression of tumor growth. We have shown that a novel nanoparticle compound made of simple milk-derived colloid has the capability for drug conjugation, and serves as a tumor-specific carrier of anti-cancer drugs. Further research on its safety and ability to carry various anti-cancer drugs into multiple drug-resistant primary breast models is warranted. © 2015 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.