Introduction: Specific delivery of a drug to a target site is a major goal of drug delivery research. Using temperature-sensitive liposomes (TSLs) is one way to achieve this; the liposome acts as a protective carrier, allowing increased drug to flow through the bloodstream by minimizing clearance and non-specific uptake. On reaching microvessels within a heated tumor, the drug is released and quickly penetrates. A major advance in the field is ThermoDox® (Celsion), demonstrating significant improvements to the drug release rates and drug uptake in heated tumors (∼ 41°C). Most recently, magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) has been combined with TSL drug delivery to provide localized chemotherapy with simultaneous quantification of drug release within the tumor.
Areas covered: In this article the field of hyperthermia-induced drug delivery is discussed, with an emphasis on the development of TSLs and their combination with hyperthermia (both mild and ablative) in cancer therapy. State-of-the-art image-guided heating technologies used with this combination strategy will also be presented, with examples of real-time monitoring of drug delivery and prediction of efficacy.
Expert opinion: The specific delivery of drugs by combining hyperthermia with TSLs is showing great promise in the clinic and its potential will be even greater as the use of image-guided focused ultrasound becomes more widespread - a technique capable of penetrating deep within the body to heat a specific area with improved control. In conjunction with this, it is anticipated that multifunctional TSLs will be a major topic of study in this field.