Catalyst and solvent free low pressure RF plasma polymerization strategy was used to develop multilayer biodegradable PCL-co-PEG (poly (epsilon-caprolactone)-poly (ethylene glycole) copolymer) coatings for the controlled delivery of anticancer drug to reduce the nephrotoxicity (toxic effects to kidney cells) and myelosuppression (decrease in red blood cells). The resulting PCL-co-PEG coatings were characterized by FTIR-ATR and XPS. Multilayer drug delivery device can be tailored in such a way to have controlled cell surface interactions and barrier layer dependent release. Cisplatin loaded (118 mu gm/cm(2)) PCL-co-PEG coatings with optimized ratios of epsilon-CL/DEGME monomer feed in the plasma reactor were prepared for controlled cell death applications. Methylene blue (MB) was used as a model for cisplatin to simulate the drug release kinetics and the nature of which was examined by using the Korsmeyer-Peppas model for polymer coatings. Barrier layer dependent release was investigated by varying the deposition time from 5 to 50 min. Ellipsometric measurements were performed to understand the influence of surface hydration over the different chemically functionalized coatings with the incubation time. Human ovarian carcinoma cells (NIH:OVCAR-3) were cultured in physiological conditions and were seeded in a microplate which was loaded with autoclave coated glass cover slips for different time durations. Cell viability assay was performed to analyze the cell death. The results show that by gradually increasing the barrier layer thickness with deposition time, the amount of MB release was decreased which was modeled by analyzing the MB release kinetics. Investigations of each layer for multilayer PCL-co-PEG coatings were demonstrated over the drug delivery applications in vitro. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.