Lung cancer, primarily
non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), is the leading cause of
cancer mortality and the prognosis of patients with advanced or metastatic NSCLC is poor. Despite significant advances in diagnosis and treatment, little improvement has been seen in NSCLC mortality. Recently, Intratumoral
Chemotherapy, a direct local delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs, has shown promise in clinical studies. However, toxicity and high dosage of chemotherapeutic agents used for treatment are a limitation. Moreover, these drugs damage indiscriminately, cancerous as well as normal tissues. Thus, a novel therapeutic strategy that targets only malignant tissue sparing normal tissue becomes an urgent issue.
Ephrin receptor-A2 (EphA2), a new
biomarker, is over-expressed in NSCLC, but not on normal epithelial cells.
Receptor EphA2 is a
cell surface protein, which upon binding to its
ligand EphrinA1 undergo phosphorylation and degradation which attenuates NSCLC growth. Targeting the
tumor, sparing the normal tissue and enhancing the
therapeutic effects of
ligand proteins are the goal of this project. Thus a novel method, intratumoral EphA2 targeted
therapy, has been developed to target the oncogenic receptors on
tumor tissue by using
albumin mesosphere (AMS) conjugated ephrinA1 in mice bearing NSCLC
tumors.