title: Strategies to improve drug delivery in bladder cancer therapy.
abstract: Bladder cancer is the ninth most common malignancy in the world featuring very high gender variability in occurrence. Current options for bladder cancer therapy include surgery, immunotherapy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy with a trend towards multimodal treatments. However, successful management remains a challenge for urologists and oncologists because of the high risk for recurrence and progression. Particularly in the field of bladder cancer chemotherapy, efficacy of treatment might be improved by advanced drug delivery strategies aimed at prolonged residence time within the bladder cavity and increased permeability of the bladder wall during intravesical instillation. Moreover, a deeper understanding of the biology of bladder carcinogenesis and malignant progression stimulated the development of a new generation of anticancer drugs for targeted therapies that might result in increased treatment specificity together with lower toxic potential and higher therapeutic indices. This review discusses the available strategies for 'targeted therapy', focusing on molecular targets, and for 'controlled delivery', comprising all other approaches towards improved drug delivery.
authors.affiliation: University of Vienna, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmaceutics, Althanstrasse 14, A-1090 Vienna, Austria. michael.wirth@univie.ac.at
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wirth
authors.forename: V E
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Plattner
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gabor
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations; D018450:Disease Progression; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000517:prevention & control; D012737:Sex Factors; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations