Cancer treatment using drug-loaded thermosensitive liposomes with non-invasive ultrasound thermal therapy and temperature monitoring and control in an in vivo animal model

Chemotherapy is the most commonly used method for treating different cancer types that involves the delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs, leading to the death of cancer cells. However, the non-uniform distribution of chemotherapeutic drugs within the tumor and systemic toxicity has multiple side effects, and the delivery problem remains unsolved. Drug delivery carriers such as liposomes are used to deliver the drug to the targeted regions. To this end, a controlled and reliable release of the loaded chemotherapeutic drugs from a liposome core has remained a problem to overcome. The combined use of drug-loaded thermosensitive liposomes (TSL) and localized heating methods, ultrasound, can be used to deposit the drug in the heated region selectively. The efficacy of the proposed targeted treatment method will be based on the release of chemotherapeutic drugs from thermosensitive liposomes at the targeted region that is maintained at a predefined temperature for a specific time. This results in delivering concentrated and localized therapy and minimizing the side effects of systemic drug administration. To achieve this, we aim to develop a non-invasive ultrasound thermometry technique in combination with a non-invasive focused ultrasound thermotherapy technique (LIFU), and use the method toward achieving controlled drug release from thermosensitive liposomes

Faculty Supervisor:

Michael Kolios;Jahan Tavakkoli;Carl Kumaradas

Student:

Partner:

FUJIFILM VisualSonics;Cancer Rx

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Manufacturing; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Toronto Metropolitan University

Program: