In order to achieve complete remission from most tumours, patients often need to undergo radiation therapy, have the tumour removed surgically, and undergo lengthy chemotherapy. The objective of this study was to find an alternate method of encapsulating 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in microspheres that would improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy without having a detrimental effect on the patients' quality of life or causing as many severe adverse effects on the system as the current method does. In the present experiment, chitosan microspheres were cross-linked in two distinct ways utilizing 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). It was hypothesized that altering factors such as the concentration of chitosan, the type of the oily phase, the nature of the cross-linker, and the amount of time spent cross-linking would provide a diverse set of features for the microspheres. The concentration of chitosan, the viscosity of the oil phase, and the glutaraldehyde content all had an influence on the pace at which 5-FU was released from the microspheres. Chitosan microspheres containing 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) that have been cross-linked release their contents very quickly. The goal of this study was to identify the most effective technique for manufacturing porous microspheres, which have the potential to postpone the breakdown of medications by stomach acid for up to six hours.

5-Fluorouracil, Chitosan, Microspheres, Colon cancer