CAREER: Improving Convective Transport of Drugs and Genes in Solid Tumors

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

9984062 Yuan Delivery of therapeutic agents to solid tumors is a major problem in cancer treatment. This is because therapeutic agents administered into the body will penetrate into both normal and tumor tissues, and most anticancer agents are toxic to nearly all cells in these tissues. Therefore, the amount of agents, administered into the body of patients, is limited by the dose that can be tolerated by normal cells. The delivery problem is multidisciplinary; it involves engineering and various fields in science and medicine. Therefore, two efforts need to be made in order to solve this problem. One is to establish collaborations among engineers, biologists, and physicians; and another is to develop special training programs for preparing future biomedical engineers to meet the challenge in the 21st century. The overall objective of the proposed career development plan is to develop an integrated research and educational program of drug and gene delivery in solid tumors. The goal of the research project is to improve drug and gene delivery in tumors through interstitial perfusion. The proposed project will quantify the hydraulic conductivity in tumor tissues perfused under different conditions, and investigate how interstitial fluid space affects the hydraulic conductivity. Furthermore, the project will investigate how infusion pressure and flow rate affect the distribution volume of different tracers both ex vivo and in vivo. The ratio of distribution volume versus infusion volume will be optimized through control of infusion conditions. The optimized infusion conditions will then be applied to gene delivery. The goal of the study is to maximize the amount of transfected cells in solid tumors. The objective of the educational plan is to establish a comprehensive training program of drug delivery at Duke University. The program will include drug delivery-related courses with both experimental and computational projects, a virtual drug delivery laboratory, research training opportunities for undergraduate students, and summer research activities for high school students, minorities, women, and persons with disabilities.