Dear Gloria,

A just published paper from a South Korean team reports their experiments using doxorubicin-loaded albumin bound nanoparticles on traversing the blood brain barriers to treat brain cancer. Long in clinical practice, neurosurgeons can implant BCNU wafers inside the brain lesions.

Doxorubicin  has a long history and has been used widely for the treatment of malignancies, including leukemias, lymphomas and many solid tumors, including brain tumors. Accordingly, its pharmacokinetics are well known. From the aspect of

safety, the drug can be administrated intrathecally with few serious adverse effects (1,2). This might compromise safety if leakage of the drug occurs into the cerebrospinal

fluid. Moreover, resistance to alkylating agent due mainly to overexpression of MGMT generally does not demonstrate cross-resistance to doxorubicin, which blocks DNA and RNA synthesis by inhibiting topoisomerase II. The sheet might be

especially useful for patients with recurrent drug-resistant gliomas initially treated by alkylating agents. 

Local therapies are key options for the treatment of brain tumors. BCNU-loaded wafers and other implantable nano and micro-particles are the materials of first choice .

1 Jordan B, Pasquier Y and Schnider A: Neurological

improvement and rehabilitation potential following toxic

myelopathy due to intrathecal injection of doxorubicin. Spinal

Cord 42: 371-373, 2004.

2.  Arico M, Nespoli L, Porta F, Caselli D, Raiteri E and Burgio

GR: Severe acute encephalopathy following inadvertent

intrathecal doxorubicin administration. Med Pediatr Oncol 18:

261-263, 1990.