Doxil, tumor accumulation

The anticancer drugs delivered by liposomes include many small molecule drugs such as DOX, daunoru-bicin, platinates, taxanes, camptothecin, etc. The most successful development is DOX-encapsulated pegylated liposomes, with a trade name of Doxil in the U.S. market or Cylax in the European market. Doxil has shown significant clinical advantages over free DOX and conventional DOX liposomes.f Enhanced tumor accumulation of Doxil has been demonstrated in numerous preclinical studies over a variety of tumor models. Similar effects were also observed in clinical uses. 

Long circulating liposomes can exploit the EPR effect to accumulate at sites where pathological reactions occur. For example, the commercial product Doxil (marketed as Caelyx in Europe) consists of smallsized PEGylated liposomes, encapsulating the cytostatic doxorubicin. The resulting long circulation times and small size of the vesicles facilitate their accumulation in tumor tissue via the EPR effect. 

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