Translating Oxford’s World-leading Science

The Oxford Centre for Drug Delivery Devices (OxCD3) is at the forefront of exploiting physical mechanisms triggered by ultrasound, magnetic fields or shock waves, to improve the delivery and penetration of drugs into tumours.
OxCD3 has joined forces with IBME (Institute for Biomedical Engineering), and the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, launching the TARDOX trial.
Taking advantage of CRUK funded Oxford clinical trials infrastructure and the Oxford Cancer Network to develop and refine technology for patient benefit.

“Reaching therapeutic levels of cancer drugs within a tumour, while avoiding side effects for the rest of the body is a challenge for all cancer drugs, including small molecules, antibodies and viruses,” Professor Constantin Coussios, IBME, OxCD3

Device-Enhanced Drug Delivery for the Benefit of Patients

Aims to demonstrate that targeted mild hyperthermia, induced by focused ultrasound, can enable highly targeted/non-invasive drug delivery.
Uses ThermoDox® technology that improves doxorubicin efficacy.
LTSLs (Lysolipid thermally sensitive liposomes) hold doxorubicin but undergo structural changes releasing the chemotherapy agent at 40⁰C.
Shown in animal models to deliver 25x more doxorubicin than intravenous infusion, 5x more than other liposomal forms.

Results

After focused ultrasound intramoural biopsy doxorubicin concentrations increased by 3.7x on average
Treatment modality appears feasible, safe, and can enhance drug delivery
Demonstrating that non-invasive and inexpensive temperature monitoring using computational planning models enable effective drug delivery, this study has the potential to expand LSTL use
Potential to deliver patient survival benefit for a range of solid tumours.
Follow up studies already in the pipeline

Publications

“This trial offers strong evidence of the rapidly evolving role of radiology in not only diagnosing disease but also guiding and monitoring therapy.” Prof. Fergus Gleeson