University of California researchers have developed a new nanoparticulate drug delivery system that can be used to target hard-to-treat metastatic cancers with much lower quantities of highly toxic chemotherapeutic agents. 

The team, based at UC San Diego and led by Professor David Cheresh, targeted the protein marker integrin avB3, which is associated with angiogenesis in tumours, with a lipid-polymer based 100nm particle carrying a paylod of doxorubicin. The therapeutic effects were observed to be much more effective in inhibiting the growth of secondary metastatic lesions than in attacking the primary tumours in pancreatic and kidney tumours in mice at dosage levels 15 time below the normal systemic dose, which can cause damage to normal healthy tissues.

The approach may have considerable significance as metastatic lesions are commonly difficult to treat and can frequently be the cause of death rather than the primary tumour in many types of cancer, and also because of the greatly reduced quantity of chemotherapeutic agent required.

More information available in the UC San Diego press release.