ABSTRACT
The major problems in cancer chemotherapy are the toxic drug effects on normal cells and the rapid clearance of the drug from tumor tissues. This chapter discusses the general concept of selective cancer chemotherapy together with a brief outline of the carrier systems of anticancer drugs thus far reported, followed by illustration of the experimental and clinical use of the microencapsulated drugs proposed by the author. Arterial chemoembolization is a challenge to targeted drug delivery feasible for clinical application. Because of the multifold characteristics as drug carriers, liposomes have been extensively investigated as carriers of anticancer drugs. Albumin microspheres can be used as a drug carrier. The potential of microspheres as a drug carrier is characterized by their particulate nature and prolonged drug release. Drug release from the ethylcellulose microcapsules appears to be considerably faster than that from other drug delivery systems such as liposomes, albumin microspheres, and emulsions.
