From Bench to Bedside—An Example of an In Situ Hydrogel in In Vivo Applications - In-Situ Gelling Polymers: For Biomedical Applications - page 210

From Bench to Bedside—An Example of an
In Situ Hydrogel in In Vivo Applications

Ankshita Prasad and Xian Jun Loh

Abstract The treatment of cancer requires several anticancer drugs targeting dis-
similar cellular mechanisms. These therapies require balance with the associated
toxicity of the administered drug. The ideal drug delivery system should sustain
high local concentrations at the tumor site while minimizing systemic drug lev-
els. Local cancer therapy depends on administration where targeted activity could
possibly improve patient outcomes such as amplified local control and lowered
metastatic potential. Combination anticancer treatments could also be improved
with targeted therapies. OncoGel is a gel depot formulation of paclitaxel in ReGel.
Oncogel has been studied in various in vitro setups. OncoGel has been shown to
be able to physically target paclitaxel to the tumor site as well as reducing sys-
temic circulation. OncoGel has also shown enhanced efficacy as a stand-alone
treatment as well as synergistic activity in combination therapies. Clinical studies
in superficially-palpable tumors and esophageal carcinoma confirmed local pacli-
taxel release from OncoGel in patients. OncoGel's ability to enhance present ther-
apies for esophageal and brain cancers will be discussed.

Keywords Anti-cancer · Thermogel · Oncogel · In vivo · Clinical trials

1 Introduction

The need for drug delivery systems to improve safety, efficacy and patient com-
pliance is well established. There exist various drug delivery systems such as
microspheres, nano particles, as well as environmentally sensitive systems [ 1 - 3 ].
Thermosensitive polymers are a subset of environmentally sensitive polymers which
undergo a phase transition (sol-gel) when subjected to a change in temperature.