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Which drug or drug delivery system can change clinical practice for brain tumor therapy?

Tali Siegal1

  • 1Gaffin Center for Neuro-Oncology, Hadassah Hebrew-University Medical Center, Ein Kerem, P.O. Box 12000, Jerusalem 91120, Israel. siegal@hadassah.org.il

Neuro-Oncology
|March 19, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Improving drug delivery to brain tumors is crucial for better treatment outcomes. Overcoming the central nervous system

Area of Science:

  • Neuro-oncology
  • Pharmacology
  • Drug Delivery Systems

Background:

  • Primary brain tumor prognosis remains poor despite advances in anticancer drug discovery.
  • Experimental agents often fail due to inadequate drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier.
  • Physiological barriers and efflux mechanisms limit drug concentration at the tumor site.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review leading strategies for enhancing drug delivery to brain tumors.
  • To assess the potential of these strategies to change clinical practice.
  • To outline challenges for drug delivery, especially with anti-angiogenic therapies.

Main Methods:

  • Systematic review of the English literature.
  • Critical review of systemic and local drug delivery strategies.
  • Identification of challenges in combined treatment modalities.

Main Results:

  • Limited success of current experimental agents is attributed to poor central nervous system drug delivery.
  • Various strategies are being explored to overcome physiological barriers.
  • Combined therapies, including anti-angiogenic treatments, present unique delivery challenges.

Conclusions:

  • New drugs and delivery systems must demonstrate antitumor efficacy and a favorable safety profile.
  • Ease of clinical implementation, repeated administration, and compatibility with tumor characteristics are essential.
  • Successful strategies require overcoming physiological barriers to achieve significant clinical impact beyond local control.
Keywords:
CNSblood-brain barrierbrain drug deliverybrain tumorbrain tumor therapyclinical practicedrug developmentdrug efflux mechanism

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