Nanoparticles for the Oral Administration of Cancer Therapies - Intracellular Delivery: Fundamentals and Applications - page 487

Nanoparticles for the Oral Administration
of Cancer Therapies

Socorro Espuelas, Maite Agüeros, Irene Esparza, and Juan M. Irache

Abstract Oral delivery remains the preferred route for drug administration thanks
to its patient convenience and compliance. However, many anticancer drugs are
unsuitable for oral formulations. This chapter describes the major obstacles to
cancer drugs gastrointestinal absorption (namely low solubility, poor membrane
permeability or extensive pre-systemic metabolism) and strategies to circumvent
them, with special attention to nanocarriers. Until now we have proved an enhance-
ment in the oral bioavailability of entrapped anticancer drugs. The remaining chal-
lenge is designing nanoparticles able to specifically target the drugs to tumor cells
anywhere in the body after oral administration. To this aim, it will be necessary
more studies clarifying the correlation between nanoparticles properties and their
interaction with the gut mucosa, their transport through and their final outcome.
The possibilities of oral administration of other modalities of cancer treatment, as
immunotherapy, are also discussed.

Keywords Cancer therapy • Oral administration • Bioavailability • Nanocarriers
• Cancer immunotherapy • P-gp

Abbreviations

5-FU 5-fluorouracil

ABC ATP-binding cassette

Ag Antigen

COX-2 Cyclooxygenase 2

CT Cholera toxin

CYP Cytochrome P450

S. Espuelas, M. Agüeros, I. Esparza, and J.M. Irache ( * )
Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology,
School of Pharmacy, University of Navarra, Pamplona 31080, Spain
e-mail: [e-mail]