Tumor targeting

Abstract

Cancer chemotherapy relies on the expectation that anti-cancer drugs will preferentially kill rapidly dividing tumor cells, rather than normal cells. Since a large portion of the tumor cells has to be killed in order to obtain and maintain a complete remission, large doses of drugs are typically used, with significant toxicity towards proliferating non-malignant cells. Our research focuses on the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents to the tumor environment by means of specific ligands (antibodies or small organic binding molecules) to tumor-associated antigens. In most cases, we target accessible antigens (such as the EDB domain of fibronectin or the C domain of tenascin-C) which are abundantly expressed around tumor blood vessels, but virtually undetectable in normal tissues.