Principal Investigator: Tracy Stokol

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): 

More than 50 FDA-approved anticancer drugs are intrinsically toxic due to their poor solubility and unfavorable body distribution. Many of them are currently used as standard treatments for metastatic breast cancer in the hope that the benefits can outweigh the risks of encountering toxicities. Although many drug delivery vehicles were developed to reduce dose-limiting toxicities, a major drawback of them is the ability to deeply penetrate tumor. Clinically, they can only modestly increase the anti-tumor activity but can still cause many side effects or even morbidity and mortality. This project will involve the development of a shape-orientated delivery approach to identify the tumor site and to reprofile the in vivo dispositions of cytotoxic agents.