Full Description
This book was conceived from a simple question as to why cancer is so difficult to treat. Ultimately we want to find ways to cure cancers, but that may be an elusive dream at least with the technologies we have now and expect to have in the near future. This leads the question of whether it is possible to improve current cancer treatment methods, especially from the perspective of enhancing targeted drug delivery to tumors. This volume is designed to provide information related to the difficulties in treating cancers through targeted drug delivery, our current understanding of cancer biology, and potential technologies that might be used to achieve enhanced drug delivery to tumors. An ideal drug delivery system for treating cancers would maximize the therapeutic efficacy with minimal side effects in clinical applications. The seemingly improved anticancer efficacy of the current nanoparticle-based formulations needs to be viewed from the context of very poor success rates for translation to human applications. The results of in vitro cell culture models and small animal in vivo experiments have not been extrapolated to clinical applications. Finding the reasons for the lack of successful translation is required if we are to discover approaches to substantially extend the survival time of cancer patients, and hopefully identify cures. Cancer Targeted Drug Delivery: Elusive Dream describes some answers of achieving the so far elusive dream of treating cancers like other chronic diseases with therapies that focus using improved drug delivery systems designed to better align with the unique biological and physiological properties of cancer.
Contents
A Time Travel Journey Through Cancer Therapies.- Nanotechnology for Cancer Treatment: Possibilities & Limitations.- Vascular Targeting Approaches to Treat Cancer.- Tumor Immunotherapy by Utilizing a Double-Edged Sword Chemokines.- Cancer Biology: Some Causes for a Variety of Different Diseases.- Cancer Stromal Targeting (CAST) Therapy and Tailored Antibody Drug Conjugate Therapy Depending on Nature of Tumor Stroma.- Cancer Cell Respiration: Hypoxia and pH in Solid Tumors.- Tumor Vasculature, EPR Effect, and Anticancer Nanomedicine: Connecting the Dots.- Pressure Gradients in Solid Tumors.- The ADAMs: New Therapeutic Targets for Cancer?.- Role of the Extracellular Matrix - Enzyme Activities and Metastasis.- The Role of Non-Cancerous Cells in Cancer: Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma as Model to Understand the Impact of Tumor Microenvironment on Epithelial Carcinogenesis.- Heterogeneity of Cancers and its Implication for Targeted Drug Delivery.- A Study of Cancer Heterogeneity: From Genetic Instability to Epigenetic Diversity in Colorectal Cancer.- Nanotherapeutics in Multidrug Resistance.- Stem Cells and Cancer.- Mechanisms of Metastasis.- Cancer-Specific Ligand/Receptor Interactions.- Targeting Drugs to Cancer: A Tough Journey to the Tumor Cell.- Long Circulation and Tumor Accumulation.- Convective and Diffusive Transport in Drug Delivery.- Intravital Real-Time Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy for the in Situ Evaluation of Nanocarriers.- The EPR effect in Cancer Therapy.- In Vitro 3-dimensional Cancer Culture Model.- Complex Transport Around Tumor: Need for Realistic In Vitro Tumor Transport Model.- The Missing Components Today and the New Treatments Tomorrow.
