Novel Drug Eluting Microspheres for Transcatheter Embolization Therapy in Liver Cancer

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, accounting for over 600,000 deaths per year. The most common treatment strategy for intermediate and advanced stage of unresectable HCC is trans-arterial chemoembolization (TACE). Drug-eluting bead (DEB) is a relatively new drug delivery embolization system which allows for an improved drug dosing of anticancer agents in a sustained manner. However, these beads characterized with high variability in diameter size, and unable to respond to the hypoxic tumor conditions. Hypoxic tumors are known to be chemo-resistant and send outgrowth factor signals leading to angiogenesis and metastasis. This suggests the need for novel and biocompatible, multifunctional embolic agent which can deliver anticancer drugs with high target specificity. Microfluidic technology offers a new platform to control liquids under flow in small volumes for generating reproducible microspheres, characterized by a controlled and narrow size distribution or distinct shapes. Recently, we demonstrated a newly developed method to fabricate porous microspheres with defined physicochemical properties, characterized with high precision and high drug content using microfluidic system.
In order to be able to optimize the different formulations and, characterize their mechanical properties, release kinetics and to understand the relationships between drug carrier’s morphological design and tumor microenvironment, we developed an ex-vivo model for hepatic embolization based on a novel microfluidic design. This strategy could be further expanded to treat other types of cancers, such as prostate, uterus and kidneys cancer.