Sorafenib-Drug Delivery Strategies in Primary Liver Cancer

Area of Science:

• Hepatocellular carcinoma pharmacotherapy
• Nanomedicine in oncology
• Drug delivery systems

Background:

• Current liver cancer treatments (sorafenib, TACE) have high relapse rates (50-80%) due to chemoresistance.
• Limitations include impaired drug uptake, altered metabolism, and unsatisfactory enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect.
• Need for improved adjuvant therapies and drug delivery strategies is critical.

Purpose of the Study:

• Review recent advancements in primary liver cancer pharmacotherapy.
• Evaluate the potential of drug delivery systems for sorafenib and its derivatives.
• Highlight strategies to overcome treatment limitations and improve efficacy.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of targeted nanoparticles, biomaterials, and combination therapies.
• Evaluation of approaches leveraging Kupffer cells and smaller nanoparticles for enhanced delivery.
• Assessment of biomimetic delivery systems (blood cells, exosomes) for tumor targeting and immune response.

Main Results:

• Targeted nanoparticles and biomaterials show potential for increased tumor-specific delivery, but clinical data is limited.
• Novel approaches address EPR limitations and enable inter-/intracellular delivery.
• Combination therapies and biomimetic systems offer solutions for chemoresistance and metastasis prevention.

Conclusions:

• Drug delivery systems offer promising strategies to improve liver cancer treatment efficacy.
• Overcoming tumor heterogeneity and low drug accumulation requires further research.
• Translating preclinical findings into clinical success necessitates addressing physiological differences.