Polymer-Drug Conjugates to Simultaneously Target the Tumor and the Tumor Microenvironment

Cancer is still one of the major causes of death worldwide and is the subject of immeasurable amounts of studies trying to understand it and change its outcome with a variety of new treatment strategies. In this lecture I will describe the design of new polymer-drug conjugates that can actively target simultaneously various types of cells at the tumor microenvironment, including endothelial cells, stromal cells, tumor associated macrophages, and cancer cells of diverse tumor origin. Our results highlight both E-selectin and VEGFR-1 as an effective potential targets for nanomedicines used to treat primary and metastatic tumors. The E-selectin- and VEGFR-1-targeted polymer-drug conjugates significantly inhibited primary tumor growth, prevented the development of B16-F10 pulmonary metastases, and could further control the formation of cancer metastasis.