Hyperthermia and Thermosensitive Liposomes for Improved Delivery of Chemotherapeutic Drugs to Solid Tumors

Gerben Koning, Lex Eggermont, LH (Lars) Lindner, Timo ten Hagen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

233 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Lipid-based nanocarriers or liposomes have been proven successful in the delivery of chemotherapeutic agents and are currently applied clinically in the treatment of various types of cancer. Liposomes offer the advantage of a high drug payload, decreased drug toxicity and enhanced drug accumulation at tumor sites. Increased accumulation is due to the relatively leaky tumor vasculature that allows liposome extravasation. Between different types of tumors and even within one tumor, vascular permeability and thus liposome extravasation may differ greatly. Furthermore, upon accumulation of liposomes in the tumor area, drug bioavailability is not guaranteed. At present, these are the major issues for clinically used liposomal drugs. Mild hyperthermia (HT), the heating of tumor tissue to temperatures of up to 43A degrees C, has been developed in the past decades as an established and efficacious treatment modality in combination with chemo- and radiotherapy. HT can be used to further improve liposomal chemotherapy in two ways: HT is known to increase vascular permeability in solid tumors and may therefore increase levels of liposome accumulation, and thermosensitive liposomes have been developed that can be triggered to release their contents upon hyperthermia. By applying these two strategies, drug delivery to tumors can be strongly enhanced.
Original languageUndefined/Unknown
Pages (from-to)1750-1754
Number of pages5
JournalPharmaceutical Research
Volume27
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010

Research programs

  • EMC MM-03-47-11

Cite this