E! 6173 A new paradigm in breast cancer treatment: ultrasound mediated drug delivery

Mange biologisk aktive preparater når ikke sitt terapeutiske potensial fordi de i liten grad lar seg levere til det syke organ og dets celler. I dette prosjektet sikter vi mot å forbedre leveringen ved å pakke legemiddelet i nanokapsler. Disse kapslene tr ansporterer legemiddelet til det syke området, f.eks. en kreftsvulst. Når kapselen når svulsten utsettes den for ultralyd, noe som fører til at legemiddelet både frigjøres fra kapselene og tas opp mer effektiv av målcellene. Teknologien er i første rekke tenkt benyttes i kreftbehandling.

Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer diagnosed in women with an estimated 1.3 million new cases annually. Approximately 12% of all women will develop the disease at some point in their lifetime (www.seer.cancer.gov). While prognosis of patients treat ed at the stage of small tumor diameter (< 2 cm) has clearly improved, there is still an unmet medical need as the vast majority of patients with advanced disease will die of their cancer. A series of studies conducted by the project participants have un covered a clear potential for dramatically improving ultrasound sensitivity of conventional liposomes, and hence, for novel ultrasound sensitive or so-called sonosensitive liposomes. Since 2007, Epitarget has performed ten major multivariate liposomal fo rmulation studies and several sonosensitive candidates have been identified. In a recent animal study conducted by Epitarget and Inserm it was shown for the first time that the candidate liposomes combined with therapeuic ultrasound have an inhibitory eff ect on tumour growth exceeding the effect of liposomes alone. It is the goal of the present consortium to bring to the clinic a drug delivery methodology comprising sonosensitive liposomes and an ultrasound device representing a high degree of innovation . With this approach a range of drugs currently used in breast cancer treatment may be transformed into more effective pharmaceutical products with the potential to improve treatment outcome of millions of breast cancer patients worldwide. The liposome a nd ultrasound device technology per se will be based on well-known components leading to a reduced technical risk. The innovative and, thus, risky features of this project are mostly attributed to the novel combination or interaction between these two wel l-known technologies, ultrasound and liposomes. Hence, the main scientific risk is suboptimal therapeutic efficacy in preclinical models due to inefficient ultrasound-induced drug release in tumour tissue.