Abstract
Brain tumors-particularly glioblastoma multiforme-pose an important public health problem in the United States. Despite surgical and medical advances, the prognosis for patients with malignant gliomas remains grim: current therapy is insufficient with nearly universal recurrence. A major reason for this failure is the difficulty of delivering therapeutic agents to the brain: better delivery approaches are needed to improve treatment. In this article, we summarize recent progress in drug delivery to the brain, with an emphasis on convection-enhanced delivery of nanocarriers. We examine the potential of new delivery methods to permit novel drug- and gene-based therapies that target brain cancer stem cells and discuss the use of nanomaterials for imaging of tumors and drug delivery.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 89-99 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Cancer Journal |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Drug delivery
- brain cancer stem cells
- convection-based delivery
- gene therapy
- nanocarriers
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research