A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF THE ANTICANCER EFFICACY OF DOXORUBICIN CARRYING MICROSPHERES AND LIPOSOMES USING A RAT-LIVER TUMOR-MODEL

Due to low efficacy of chemotherapy in the treatment of liver cancer, several methods of drug targeting have been investigated. Liposomes de signed to carry cytotoxic drugs to the liver are currently under clini cal evaluation. While experimental evidence shows promise, this method of drug delivery has several disadvantages that include short shelf l ife and poor drug delivery into tumour tissue. An alternative stategy for targeted drug delivery involving use of ion exchange microspheres may overcome these limitations while still reducing systemic toxicity and maintaining therapeutic efficacy. The purpose of this study was to determine the relative antitumour efficacy of these two drugs carryin g systems in the treatment of liver cancer. Compared to controls, DOX treatment with free drug, liposomes or microspheres significantly redu ced tumour growth by 56% (P<0.001), 51% (P<0.01) and 79% (P<0.001) res pectively. Furthermore, the DOX-microsphere treatment was significantl y better than either of the other DOX treatments (53%, P<0.05) or the sham-microsphere treated group (64%, P<0.05). Thus, drug microspheres can increase the anti-tumour efficacy compared to either free or lipos omal drug while simultaneously reducing systemic toxicity.