Targeted in vitro and in vivo delivery of diagnostic and chemotherapeutic agents to prostate cancer cells pre-targeted with bispecific antibody-ligand complexes

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20002441

Current standard cancer therapies include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Although surgery is generally effective in the treatment of primary cancerous lesions, surgical resection of malignant tumors may not result in complete cure. By the time a tumor is detected by the existing diagnostic methods, it can be assumed that metastases may already have occurred and spread. These metastatic sites are not identified at such early stages by existing methods such as X-ray, ultrasound, Computed Tomography (CT) scans or even Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) because of poor limit of detection. Small cancerous lesions are difficult to detect in vivo due to high background activity, low target activity and contrast, as well as limited specificity of the targeting agents. Furthermore chemotherapeutic agents lack specificity since normal cells are often also targeted by most of the chemotherapeutic agents. Radiation therapy has also been used to target cancer cells because cancer cells are less able to repair themselves after treatment with radiation. However, radiation cannot be used to treat many cancers because of the damage done to normal cells that surround the cancerous tissue. Thus, the development of combined and improved methods for the diagnosis and treatment of small cancerous lesions is needed.