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Drug delivery to the lymphatic system: importance in future cancer diagnosis and therapies

Xie, Yumei
Bagby, Taryn Rochelle
Cohen, Mark S.
Forrest, M. Laird
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Abstract
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US. Currently, protocols for cancer treatment include surgery to remove diseased and suspect tissues, focused radiation, systemic chemotherapy, immunotherapy and their combinations. With conventional chemotherapy, it is almost impossible to deliver anticancer drugs specifically to the tumor cells without damaging healthy organs or tissues. Over the past several decades, efforts have been made to improve drug delivery technologies that target anticancer drugs specifically to tumor cells. It has been known for over four decades that the lymphatics are the first site of metastasis for most solid cancers; however, few efforts have been made to localize chemotherapies to lymphatic tissues. Trials of several systemic targeted drug delivery systems based on nanoparticles containing chemotherapeutic agents (e.g., liposomal doxorubicin) have shown similar antitumor activity but better patient tolerance compared with conventional formulations. Animal studies have demonstrated that nanoparticles made of natural or synthetic polymers and liposomal carriers have higher accumulation in the lymph nodes and surrounding lymphatics compared to conventional intravenous therapies. This combination has the potential to both reduce nonspecific organ toxicities and increase the chemotherapeutic dose to the most likely sites of locoregional cancer metastasis.
Description
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery on 2009-08, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1517/17425240903085128.
Date
2009-08
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
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Keywords
Cancer diagnosis, Chemotherapies, Liposomes, Nanoparticles, Lymphatics
Citation
Xie, Y., Bagby, T. R., Cohen, M., & Forrest, M. L. (2009). Drug delivery to the lymphatic system: importance in future cancer diagnosis and therapies. Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 6(8), 785–792. http://doi.org/10.1517/17425240903085128
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