Introduction to Localized Controlled Drug Delivery Systems (LCDDSs)

Localized controlled drug delivery systems (LCDDS) that can control drug release profiles to ensure high therapeutic efficacy and reduced side effects are highly desired in the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. Biodegradable drug delivery depots have been investigated over the last several decades as the means to improve tumor targeting and severe systemic morbidities associated with intravenous chemotherapy treatments. These localized therapies exist in a variety of factors designed to facilitate the controlled drug delivery, directly to the disease site, sparing off-target tissue toxicities. Many of these depots are biodegradable and designed to maintain therapeutic concentrations of drugs at the tumor site for a prolonged period of time. The depots are placed inside the body through a single implantation procedure, sometimes simultaneously with the tumor excision surgery, following the complete release of the loaded active agent. Even though localized depot delivery systems have been widely investigated, only a small subset have demonstrated curative preclinical results for cancer applications, from which just a few have reached commercialization. nbsp;