The conventional methods for the treatment of breast cancer include: bulk systematic surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. These have been associated with high cost and severe side effects. However, the incremental improvements in breast cancer therapy are far from addressing the challenges associated with the cost and side effects of breast cancer treatment. There is, therefore, the need to develop localized drug delivery systems that mitigate these side effects. This research explores the synthesis and physicochemical characterization of injectable multi-functional biodegradable polymer-based microparticles with sizes of the order of ∼ 1-10 μm. These are loaded with a biosynthesized cancer drug (prodigiosin) that is obtained from the bacteria Serratia marcescens, for controlled drug release. By integrating therapeutic agents, these multi-functional and porous particles can serve as reservoirs for localized drug delivery. The prodigiosin was encapsulated using a double emulsion solvent evaporation technique in the presence of poly (DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) and poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) emulsifier, which are all approved by WHO and FDA as implant materials for use in medicine and pharmacy. The dependence of the particle size and morphology, and the in-vitro release of the drug used were elucidated using a combination of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and UV-visible spectrophotometry. The drug loading efficiency and the encapsulation efficiency were also shown to be ∼ 1 % and 82 % respectively. The implications of the results are discussed for the potential development of injectable multi-functional polymeric microparticles for the targeting and localized drug delivery of drugs for the treatment of breast cancer.

Citation Format: John David Obayemi, Winston Oluwole Soboyejo, Olushola S. Odusanya, Nicolas Anuku, Kathryn E. Uhrich, Wei Yue. Injectable multifunctional biodegradable polymeric microspheres for localized drug delivery in breast cancer treatment. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Sixth AACR Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities; Dec 6–9, 2013; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B40. doi:10.1158/1538-7755.DISP13-B40

©2014 American Association for Cancer Research.
2014