Recent progress of hydrogel-based local drug delivery systems for postoperative radiotherapy

Yandong Xie; Mingxi Liu; Chang Cai; Chengkun Ye; Tangjun Guo; Kun Yang; Hong Xiao; Xianglong Tang; Hongyi Liu

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1027254

Recent progress of hydrogel-based local drug delivery systems for postoperative radiotherapy

Front Oncol. 2023 Feb 13:13:1027254. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1027254. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yandong Xie^{1

2}, Mingxi Liu¹, Chang Cai², Chengkun Ye³, Tangjun Guo⁴, Kun Yang¹, Hong Xiao⁵, Xianglong Tang^{1

5}, Hongyi Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurosurgery, Affiliated Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
² Department of Neurosurgery, The Suqian Clinical College of Xuzhou Medical University, Suqian, China.
³ Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
⁴ Department of Neurosurgery, Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China.
⁵ Department of Neuro-Psychiatric Institute, Affiliated Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

Surgical resection and postoperative radiotherapy remained the most common therapeutic modalities for malignant tumors. However, tumor recurrence after receiving such combination is difficult to be avoided because of high invasiveness and radiation resistance of cancer cells during long-term therapy. Hydrogels, as novel local drug delivery systems, presented excellent biocompatibility, high drug loading capacity and sustained drug release property. Compared with conventional drug formulations, hydrogels are able to be administered intraoperatively and directly release the entrapped therapeutic agents to the unresectable tumor sites. Therefore, hydrogel-based local drug delivery systems have their unique advantages especially in sensitizing postoperative radiotherapy. In this context, classification and biological properties of hydrogels were firstly introduced. Then, recent progress and application of hydrogels for postoperative radiotherapy were summarized. Finally, the prospects and challenges of hydrogels in postoperative radiotherapy were discussed.

Keywords: hydrogel; local drug delivery; postoperative radiotherapy; radiation sensitization; tumor recurrence.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81902535, 81972350), the clinical medical special Program of Science and Technology Project of Jiangsu Province (BE2019734) and the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. JX22013904).