Drug eluting beads in the treatment of liver cancer

Locoregional drug delivery using image-guided intra-arterial drug eluting bead therapy

“…A wide range of synthetic and natural biodegradable polymeric microspheres ranging in sizes between 10–400 μm, have been described as vehicles for the delivery of a similarly broad variety of chemotherapeutic agents via intra-arterial administration [41]. Whilst many of these systems demonstrated some potential efficacy, the development of a commercially-viable product was hampered by an inability to iterate and therefore optimize the therapy by selection of appropriate drug, dose, release kinetics (e.g.…”

“…This was further expanded upon in a review of microparticulate drug delivery systems for embolization by Kerr in 1987 [40]. Over around a twenty year period following these reviews, a large number of reports can be found in the literature covering in vitro , pre-clinical and even clinical studies utilizing drug-loaded microspheres for chemoembolization, some of which are summarized in a book chapter by Lewis [41]. These studies used microspheres composed of either non-degradable and degradable systems based on synthetic polymers such as poly(lactic/glycolic acid), poly(hydroxybutyrate), ethylene vinyl acetate, or natural materials such as albumin, gelatin, chitosan or aliginate; with microsphere sizes falling roughly into two categories- 15–60 μm and 100–250 μm.…”

“…These studies used microspheres composed of either non-degradable and degradable systems based on synthetic polymers such as poly(lactic/glycolic acid), poly(hydroxybutyrate), ethylene vinyl acetate, or natural materials such as albumin, gelatin, chitosan or aliginate; with microsphere sizes falling roughly into two categories- 15–60 μm and 100–250 μm. Drugs of choice included doxorubicin, mitomycin C, cisplatin, methotrexate and paclitaxel amongst many others, with a drug loading range of 1–65wt% [41]. Clearly, given the variability of embolization technique, microsphere materials and drug identity between studies, there was little evidence generated to indicate improved efficacy of one system over another.…”

Hydrogel-Based Controlled Drug Delivery for Cancer Treatment: A Review

“…To date, many studies have reported that hydrogel microspheres are able to carry many chemotherapeutic agents, such as DOX, mitomycin C, and cisplatin. 84 Different hydrogels are used in the preparation of microspheres for TACE as embolism agents and/or drug carriers, such as polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA) and derivatives, starch, gelatin and derivatives, polyzene-F, chitosan, and acrylates. 85 Currently, the primary research interest lies in exploring versatile or multifunctional drug-load hydrogel microspheres.…”

“…To achieve successful embolism, the diameter of drug-load microspheres used for TACE must be larger than that of capillaries, which are approximately 5–8 μm. , In terms of clinical practice, particles with a diameter larger than 1000 μm are hard to handle due to technical problems of catheter clogging during intra-arterial administration. To date, many studies have reported that hydrogel microspheres are able to carry many chemotherapeutic agents, such as DOX, mitomycin C, and cisplatin . Different hydrogels are used in the preparation of microspheres for TACE as embolism agents and/or drug carriers, such as polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA) and derivatives, starch, gelatin and derivatives, polyzene-F, chitosan, and acrylates .…”