Tumor regression by encapsulating a moderately soluble drug into a polymeric thermogel

In spite of rapid development of chemotherapy, most in vivo results of chemotherapy only show reducing of the growth rate of tumors or relative decreasing of tumor sizes compared with those in untreated groups. Therefore, despite extensive preclinical and clinical efforts worldwide, tumor tissues still grow, which eventually leads to death in many cases. A treatment to absolutely regress tumors without any surgical resection is thus strongly desired.

The group of Prof. Ding reports a formulation composed of a clinically used antitumor drug irinotecan (IRN) and a thermosensitive hydrogel, which realized the steady sustained release of IRN out of the hydrogel for about two weeks. The tumor was significantly regressed after being treated with the IRN/thermogel formulation, and the side effects were very mild. These exciting results might be attributed to the ideal sustained release profile and period of release of the drug from the thermogel and to the significant enhancement of the fraction of the active form of the drug by the thermogel.

The work was published in a journal of the Nature Publishing Group Scientific Reports with Ms. Tianyuan CI, a Ph.D student as the first author.

Tianyuan Ci, Liang Chen, Lin Yu, and Jiandong Ding*, Tumor regression achieved by encapsulating a moderately soluble drug into a polymeric thermogel, Sci. Rep., 4: 5473 | DOI: 10.1038/srep05473 (2014).

Article links: http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140701/srep05473/full/srep05473.html