Novel Approaches to Bypassing the Blood-Brain Barrier for Drug Delivery to Brain Tumors
摘要
Brain tumors are a group of heterogeneous diseases arising from abnormally proliferating cells that can negatively impact the eloquent function of this organ. Drug therapies have traditionally not been successful in combating brain tumors, in part due to the physical exclusion of molecules from the brain tissue by the blood-brain/blood-brain tumor barriers (BBB/BBTB). In this chapter, we review the interventions that have been developed to overcome the BBB/BBTB to enable drug delivery to brain tumors. These include microbubble-assisted focused ultrasound, nanoparticular delivery systems, convection-enhanced delivery, osmotic diuretic, gene therapy, radiation, and laser interstitial thermal therapy.