NCI Image-Guided Drug Delivery Summit

On April 17, 2010, scientists from academia, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assembled at "The NCI Image Guided Drug Delivery Summit," in Washington D.C., to discuss recent advances, barriers, opportunities, and regulatory issues related to the field. The meeting included a scientific session and an NCI/FDA session, followed by a panel discussion of speakers from both sessions. Image-guided drug delivery (IGDD) in cancer is a form of individualized therapy where imaging methods are used in guidance and monitoring of localized and targeted delivery of therapeutics to the tumor. So, a systematic approach to IGDD requires mechanisms for targeting, delivery, activation, and monitoring of the process. Although the goal in IGDD is to optimize the therapeutic ratio through personalized image-guided treatments, a major challenge is in overcoming the biological barriers to the delivery of therapeutics into tumors and cells. Speakers discussed potential challenges to clinical translation of nano-based drug delivery systems including in vivo characterization of nanocarriers, preclinical validation of targeting and delivery, studies of biodistribution, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and toxicity as well as scale-up manufacturing of delivery systems. Physiologic and quantitative imaging techniques may serve as enabling tools that could potentially transform many existing challenges into opportunities for advancement of the field.