Liposomal drug delivery in multimodal cancer therapy

Encapsulating cytostatics into lipid vesicles, i.e. liposomes, improves tumour drug accumulation and reduce adverse effects. Liposomal doxorubicin (DXR) has been used in the treatment of a variety of cancers and may also be suitable for combining with other treatment modalities. By modulating liposomal membranes, liposomes can be made ultrasound (US) sensitive releasing encapsulated drug in tumour tissue upon external US stimulation and may thereby improve therapeutic outcome. Moreover, as DXR is a potent radiosensitizer, liposomal DXR could enhance the effect of radiotherapy (RT) primarily in tumour tissue. This thesis evaluates multimodal cancer therapy combining liposomal DXR with US and RT in tumour-bearing mice. Also, the feasibility of using in vivo fluorescence optical imaging (OI) to study liposome tumour uptake was evaluated. Enhanced therapeutic effect of liposomal DXR was observed when combined with US applied to tumour. Liposomal DXR also improved therapeutic outcome of RT under radioresistant hypoxic conditions. The role of OI in quantitative assessment of liposome tumour uptake remains unresolved.