title: Targeted drug delivery and penetration into solid tumors.
abstract: Delivery and penetration of chemotherapeutic drugs into tumors are limited by a number of factors related to abnormal vasculature and altered stroma composition in neoplastic tissues. Coupling of chemotherapeutic drugs with tumor vasculature-homing peptides or administration of drugs in combination with biological agents that affect the integrity of the endothelial lining of tumor vasculature is an appealing strategy to improve drug delivery to tumor cells. Promising approaches to achieve this goal are based on the use of Asn-Gly-Arg (NGR)-containing peptides as ligands for drug delivery and of NGR-TNF, a peptide-tumor necrosis factor-α fusion protein that selectively alters drug penetration barriers and that is currently tested in a randomized Phase III trial in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Oncology and IIT Network Research Unit of Molecular Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, via Olgettina 58, 20132 Milan, Italy. corti.angelo@hsr.it
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Corti
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pastorino
authors.forename: Flavio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Curnis
authors.forename: Wadih
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Arap
authors.forename: Mirco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ponzoni
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pasqualini
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008024:Ligands; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; C464839:tumor necrosis factor-alpha, CNGRC fusion protein, human