Clinical overview on Lipoplatin: a successful liposomal formulation of cisplatin

Nanoparticle formulations for packaging existing drugs have been used to treat cancer. Lipoplatin is a liposomal cisplatin encapsulated into liposome nanoparticles of an average diameter of 110 nm. Lipoplatin has substantially reduced the renal toxicity, peripheral neuropathy, ototoxicity, myelotoxicity as well as nausea/vomiting and asthenia of cisplatin in Phase I, II and III clinical studies with enhanced or similar efficacy to cisplatin. During clinical development, 10- to 200-fold higher accumulation of Lipoplatin in solid tumors compared to adjacent normal tissue was found in patients. Targeting of tumor vasculature by Lipoplatin in animals suggested its antiangiogenesis potential and Lipoplatin was proposed to act like a double-sword: as chemotherapy and an antiangiogenesis drug. Lipoplatin has finished successfully one Phase III non-inferiority clinical study as first-line against NSCLC in its combination with paclitaxel showing statistically significant reduction in nephrotoxicity; two more Phase III studies are in progress, one in NSCLC with gemcitabine also showing noninferiority with reduced toxicity and another in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with 5-fluorouracil. A registrational Phase II/III study against pancreatic cancer is in progress under the orphan drug status granted to Lipoplatin by the European Medicines Agency. Phase II studies are continuing in advanced breast cancer with vinorelbine and gastrointestinal cancers with radiotherapy and 5-fluorouracil. The highlights of the clinical development of Lipoplatin are reviewed.