Trojan Horses to Fight the Tumor Cells

The tumor development rarely opens up possibilities to fight successfully against its uncontrolled growth. Some of the most important and dangerous cancer types (liver carcinoma, lung carcinoma and glioblastoma) can grow very fast. However, the rapid development of their blood supply system results in gaps of defined size in the endothelial cell layers of the blood vessels. These gaps are the Achilles heel of the tumor and provide a potential target for the treatment of these tumors. The tumor targeting system EmboSphere is taking tumors under siege by blocking their angiogenic network and releasing trojan horses to fight the tumor cells.
Embolization as therapeutical concept to interrupt the angiogenic system of a tumor has been used for several years [1-3]. The chemoembolization, a locoregional therapy, comprises of an intraarterial application of cytostatics with simultaneous embolization in the angiogenic network of the tumor withbio-degradable starch particles slowing the blood flow through the tumor. This strategy is being used to enhance the concentration of the cytotoxic drug in liver tumors of patients that have otherwise poor prognosis with an extremely low relative survival rate of just 5% and a median survival time of only 14 months [4]. While efficacy could be somewhat improved,