ABSTRACT
Brain tumours constitute a profound and unsolved clinical problem although signifi cant strides have been made in the treatment of many other cancer types (Koo et al. 2006; Brioshi et al. 2010). Despite recent improvements in surgical and adjuvant therapy for brain tumours, the multimodality approach currently used (surgery followed by adjuvant therapy such as radiation therapy, chemotherapy and photodynamic therapy) has limiting factors and does not produce a meaningful improvement in patient outcome (Koo et al. 2006). Conventional chemotherapy has shown a poor outcome due to the low permeability of most anti-cancer agents through the BBB. Moreover, it has dose-related side effects owing to non specifi c biodistribution of drugs. Passive and active brain targeting with lipid nanoparticulate carriers has emerged as a promising tool for brain chemotherapy due to the nanoparticle advantages such as the ability to improve the therapeutic index of drugs by preferential localization into the brain, lower distribution into healthy tissues and extended release rate, and the evidence for their ability to cross the BBB (Craparo et al. in press).
