Hyperthermia and liposomes

Hyperthermia and liposomal drug delivery are treatment modalities that have been used to treat cancer over the last two decades. More recently, the tw o therapies have been used together in an attempt to exploit their mutual i nteractions against cancer. The goal of this review is to explore the liter ature related to combined hyperthermia and liposomal drug delivery for canc er therapy. The motivation behind combining hyperthermia and liposomal drug delivery is discussed from a physical chemical and physiological standpoin t. Two types of therapeutic ratios were calculated for in vivo studies from across the literature. These ratios compared the results obtained from hyp erthermia and liposomes to hyperthermia and free drug as well as to liposom es without hyperthermia. These two therapeutic ratios were applied to both tumour drug uptake and tumour growth delay studies. In all studies reviewed , hyperthermia in combination with liposomal drug showed an enhanced therap eutic effect compared to either treatment modality alone or hyperthermia an d free drug. Future work needs to be focused on optimizing thermosensitive liposomes and understanding the effect of thermal dose on liposomal drug de livery. Though not currently used in the clinic, this combination therapy s eems to hold great promise towards improving current cancer therapeutic reg imens.