Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 1
Targeted Drug Delivery in
Oncology: Current Paradigm and
Challenges
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DARREN LARS STIRLAND
a
AND YOU HAN BAE*
b
a
Department of Bioengineering, College of Engineering, University of Utah,
Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA;
b
Department of Pharmaceutics and
Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, University of Utah, Salt
Lake City, UT 84108, USA
*
E-mail: you.bae@utah.edu
1.1 Targeted Drug Delivery
Targeted drug delivery seeks to improve the therapeutic index, that is, lower
the toxicity but increase the efficacy of a drug. Some designs try to minimize
side effects to allow a higher dose and increased therapeutic effects. Other
designs focus on increasing efficacy to require less drug that could cause side
effects. The methods of targeted drug delivery often control both when and
where the drug is effective. If the drug could be presented only to the disease in
the body, then there would be no side effects and efficacy would be improved
with high concentrations in the target area. In this chapter, we focus on the
topic of targeted drug delivery in cancer therapy. Research has been ongoing
for years to accumulate a significant amount of knowledge into the field and
fill the literature with the term ''targeted drug delivery.'' Some have very
aggressive claims of succeeding at targeted drug delivery and others, perhaps
more accurately, state a goal of improving targeted drug delivery. While clear
