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Advances in drug delivery to high grade gliomas
1Mutagenesis Unit, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria San Martino - IST Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Genova, Italy.
Abstract:
If cancer is hard to be treated, brain cancer is even more, caused by the inability of many effective drugs given systemically to cross the blood brain and blood tumor barriers and reach adequate concentrations at the tumor sites. Effective delivery of drugs to brain cancer tissues is thus a necessary, albeit not sufficient, condition to effectively target the disease. In order to analyze the current status of research on drug delivery to high grade gliomas (HGG-WHO grades III and IV), the most frequent and aggressive brain cancers, a literature search was conducted in PubMed using the terms: "drug delivery and brain tumor" over the publication year 2015. Currently explored drug delivery techniques for HGG include the convection and permeabilization-enhanced deliveries, drug-releasing depots and Ommaya reservoirs. The efficacy/safety ratio widely varies among these techniques and the success of current efforts to increase this ratio widely varies as well.
Insights
Treating brain cancer is challenging because drugs struggle to reach tumors. This review examines drug delivery methods for high-grade gliomas, highlighting varied efficacy and safety profiles.
Area of Science:
- Neuro-oncology
- Drug Delivery Systems
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Brain cancers, particularly high-grade gliomas (HGG), present significant treatment challenges.
- Systemic drug administration is often ineffective due to the blood-brain and blood-tumor barriers.
- Efficient drug delivery to brain tumor sites is critical for effective cancer targeting.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the current landscape of drug delivery research for high-grade gliomas (HGG).
- To analyze techniques explored for enhancing drug concentrations within brain tumor tissues.
- To assess the efficacy and safety of various drug delivery strategies for HGG.
Main Methods:
- Literature search conducted on PubMed for studies published in 2015.
- Keywords used: "drug delivery" and "brain tumor".
- Focus on techniques applied to high-grade gliomas (WHO grades III and IV).
Main Results:
- Several drug delivery techniques are currently explored for HGG treatment.
- Methods include convection-enhanced delivery, permeabilization-enhanced delivery, drug-releasing depots, and Ommaya reservoirs.
- The efficacy and safety profiles of these techniques show considerable variation.
Conclusions:
- Effective drug delivery is a crucial prerequisite for successful brain cancer treatment.
- Current drug delivery methods for HGG exhibit a wide range of efficacy and safety.
- Further research is needed to optimize these techniques for improved patient outcomes.
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