23. February 2018
In situ carmustine wafers containing 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU) are commonly used for the treatment of recurrent glioblastoma to overcome the brain-blood barrier. In theory, this chemotherapy diffuses into the adjacent parenchyma and the excipient degrades in maximum 8 weeks but no clinical data confirms this evolution, because patients are rarely operated again. A 75-year-old patient was operated twice for recurrent glioblastoma, and a carmustine wafer was implanted during the...
30. March 2017
Abstract Albeit the rapidly evolving knowledge about tumor biochemistry enables various new drug molecules to be designed as treatments, malignant central nervous system (CNS) tumors remain untreatable due to the failure to expose the entire tumor to such therapeutics at pharmacologically meaningful quantities. Therefore, drug delivery in CNS tumors must be properly addressed, as otherwise, novel therapies will continue to fail. In this regard, nanomedicine poses an appealing platform for...
18. October 2016
Abstract The present study focuses on the development of dry powders for inhalation as adjuvant chemotherapy in lung cancer treatment. Cisplatin was chosen as a potential candidate for a local treatment as it remains the main platinum component used in conventional chemotherapies, despite its high and cumulative systemic toxicities. Bulk cisplatin was reduced to submicron sizes using high-pressure homogenization, mixed with a solubilized lipid and/or PEGylated component and then spray-dried to...
02. June 2016
SN38 (7-ethyl-10-hydroxycamptothecin) is a highly potent anti-cancer compound. However, it is poorly soluble in pharmaceutically acceptable excipients, thus the direct formulation and delivery is restricted. The current study focused on lipid-based formulation design to enable oral delivery of SN38 at high doses and at therapeutic levels. The pH dependent ionisation property of SN38 was utilized to form a molecular complex with the cationic surfactant, oleylamine and this increased (>...
30. January 2016
Smart polymer nanogel-assisted drug delivery systems have attracted more and more attention in cancer chemotherapy because of their well-defined morphologies and pleiotropic functions in recent years. In this work, an L-cystine-crosslinked reduction-responsive polypeptide nanogel of methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(L-phenylalanine-co-L-cystine) (mPEG-P(LP-co-LC)) was employed as a smart excipient for RM-1 prostate cancer (PCa) chemotherapy. Doxorubicin (DOX), as a regular chemotherapy drug,...