Radiation-Induced Chemosensitization: Potentiation of Antitumor Activity of Polymer-Drug Conjugates
Abstract
Conjugating drugs with polymeric carriers is one way to improve selective delivery to tumors. Poly(L-glutamic acid)-paclitaxel (PG-TXL) is one such conjugate. Compared with paclitaxel, its uptake, retention in tumors, and antitumor efficacy are increased. Our initial studies showed that PG-TXL given before or after radiotherapy enhanced tumor growth delay significantly more than paclitaxel. We further demonstrated that when the treatment end point was tumor cure, enhancement factors of 8.4 and 7.2 were observed after fractionated and single dose radiation, respectively. These values, to our knowledge, were greater than those produced by other taxanes or by any other chemotherapeutic drugs or radiosensitizer tested so far. Our results support the idea that increased tumor uptake of PG-TXL and sustained release of paclitaxel in the tumor are responsible for enhanced radiopotentiation activity of PG-TXL.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA406209
Entities
People
- Chun Li
Organizations
- The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center