Investigating the use of mechanical loading to enhance drug delivery to bone tumors
We are applying techniques developed in the lab to the field of cancer drug delivery in a project with collaborators at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. We have used a rat model of bone metastatic cancer to investigate the efficacy of applying mechanical loading to enhance delivery of therapeutic agents to bone tumors. Results assessed using micro-PET/CT suggest that mechanical loading influences the convective transport of NaF, but not FDG, to metastatic tumor regions. The long-term goal of this project is to develop a clinical protocol that uses load-bearing exercise to enhance transport of therapeutic drugs. This low-risk and easy-to-implement approach may enhance a drug’s uptake in the most clinically relevant skeletal areas while potentially decreasing systemic drug dosage and unwanted side effects.
3D renderings of micro-PET/CT images of representative right (tumor-bearing) tibiae and left, contralateral (no tumor) tibiae injected with 18F-FDG or 18F-NaF. The PET signal (color-coded) is co-registered with the CT signal (grayscale).
