APPLICATIONS OF LIPOSOMES IN
CANCER
Liposomes have been successfully used in
cancer therapy. Another
liposomal formulation Stimuvax is designed as
anti-MUC1 cancer vaccine by Oncothyreon to
treat non-small cell lung cancer and presently is
in phase III clinical trial (Bradbury and
Shepherd 2008; Fantini et al. 2011; Broglio et al.
2014).The thermo sensitive liposomal
formulation of doxorubicin, called ThermoDox
(Celsion) is under phase III clinical trial to treat
the patients with primary hepatocellular
carcinoma, in phase II for refractory chest wall
breast cancer and colorectal liver metastasis
(Poon and Borys 2011; Staruch et al. 2011).The Sopherion Therapeutics in the United States
and Canada is conducting a pivotal phase III
global registrational trial of Myocet in
combination with Herceptin (trastuzumab) and
Taxol (paclitaxel) for the treatment of highly
aggressive HER2-positive metastatic breast
cancer (Baselga et al. 2014).DaunoXome, the registered trademark of Galen,
is the liposomal formulation of daunorubicin
approved by the FDA for the treatment of AIDS
related kaposi's sarcoma (Cooley et al. 2007;
Petre and Dittmer 2007).The CPX-351 showed promising
results in phase III clinical trial on the patients
with secondary acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
by improving the induction response over 40%
(Riviere et al. 2011; Cortes et al. 2015).MM-398 is
being evaluated in the clinical trials for its
ability to treat various cancers, which are
resistant to chemotherapy such as pancreatic,
colorectal, lung and glioma (Ko et al. 2013; Roy
et al. 2013; Saif 2014). LipoDox is the same
liposomal formulation as Doxil in USA and
made in India by Sun Pharma and in 2013, FDA
approved the first generic version of Doxil,
made by Sun Pharma (Berger et al. 2014; Chou
et al. 2015).Doxil, a PEGylated
liposomal formulation, is the first liposomal
product that was approved by the FDA for the
treatment of kaposi's sarcoma in AIDS patients
(James et al. 1994; Barenholz 2012).In a study, it was observed that Doxil was also
active against refractory ovarian cancer, and
later approved by the FDA for the treatment of
recurrent ovarian cancer also (Muggia 1997;
Barenholz 2012).Doxil
(US), or Caelyx (outside-US) is a PEGylated
liposomal formulation encapsulating anticancer 
drug doxorubicin commercialized by Johnson &
Johnson.Marqibo was approved in 2012 by the FDA for
the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia
(Sarris et al. 2000; Rodriguez et al. 2009).Another
liposomal formulation of Celator contains
irinotecan Hcl and floxuridine and registered as
CPX-1. A number of different
liposomal formulations of anti-cancer agents
have been shown to deliver the drug at the site 
of solid tumors with minimum toxicity as
compared to free drug (Allen and Cullis 2013;
Sutradhar and Lutful 2014).