Focal Controlled Drug Delivery: Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Aspects of Focal and Targeted Delivery of Drugs

In the past few decades significant progress has been made in development of drug delivery systems (DDSs) intended for targeted delivery of the drug to its site of action. Several dozens of systemically or focally administered DDSs have been approved for clinical use. However, the biofate of the drug/DDS following their administration is complex and is controllable only to a low extent. As a result, only low amounts of the drugs reach the target tissue, and the currently available DDSs are characterized by low clinical effectiveness and/or high magnitude of adverse effects. In this chapter, the major pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters that govern the clinical effectiveness of systemically and focally administered DDSs are presented, and the ways to control the drug/DDSs disposition and to enhance the efficiency of the pharmacological responses are discussed. This chapter’s focus is on the anticancer DDSs for treatment of solid tumors and on the quantitative assessment of the analyzed factors/parameters.