ALBUMIN CONJUGATED ANTICANCER DRUGS - A NOVEL CONCEPT IN TUMOUR THERAPY

摘要

The Therapy of those solid tumours, which can not be operated, and of metastasis arising from disseminating primary tumours pose to this day a serious challenge to oncologists. A plethora of chemotherapeutic agents are used usually in a combination of compounds to attack more or less specifically different properties of tumours or tumour cells. In many cases, especially in childhood leukemias and tumours this strategy is successful, in other cases, as in" adult solid tumours very often after an initial success a relapse of the tumour occurs which is difficult to control. The reason for the recurrence of the tumour is often resistance developed by the tumour cells to the agent(s) used. One reason for the development of resistance is the usually very short half-life in blood circulation of most small drug molecules. After drug administration high peak levels are obtained in the blood, that then drop off quickly and allow surviving tumour cells to re-grow. The drugs are therefore administered frequently, mostly every day. Frequent administrations over long periods are however not possible, because all drugs used today have more or less severe side effects and are toxic to other organs beside the tumour, because the distribution in the body is more or less uniform. Therapy schedules therefore always have intermissions where treatment stops to let the patient, but very often also the tumour, recuperate.