Lipoprotein based drug delivery: Potential for pediatric cancer applications

Table 1 Frequently encountered pediatric malignancies[19]

Type of cancer	Definition/characteristics	% Incidence 2005
Leukemia	Leukemia is cancer of the body's blood-forming tissues, including the bone marrow and the lymphatic system	34
Brain and central nervous system tumors	Normal cells in the brain or the spinal cord change and grow uncontrollably, forming a mass	23
Neuroblastoma	It is a neuroendocrine tumor, most frequently originating in one of the adrenal glands, in addition to nerve tissues in the neck, chest, abdomen, or pelvis	7
Wilm's tumor or nephroblastoma	Cancer of kidney that occurs in children	5
Lymphoma (Hodgkins and Non-Hodgkins)	Blood cell tumor that develops from lymphocytes	12
Rhabdomyosarcoma	Cancer of soft tissues where the cancer cells originate from skeletal muscle progenitor	3
Bone cancer	Osteosarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma are the most common malignancies of bone	4
Germ cell tumors	Germ cells tumors typically emerge from gonads but may also originate in other parts of the body, while arising from embryonic germ cell "rests"	N/A

N/A: Statistics not available.

Table 2 Drug delivery formulations currently undergoing clinical trials for pediatric cancers

FDA approvedFormulations	Drug	Phase of pediatricclinical trial	Type of cancer	Ref.
Abraxane	Paclitaxel	Preclinical	Rhabdomyosarcoma Osteosarcoma Neuroblastoma	[30]
Nab paclitaxel	Paclitaxel	Phase I and II	Rhabdomyosarcoma, neuroblastoma	[41]
Doxil	Doxorubicin	Phase I and II	Refractory or recurrent Rhabdomyosarcoma, Neuroblastoma, Pontine glioma	[31]
DaunoXome	Daunorubicin	Phase III	AIDS related Kaposi Sarcoma, pediatric in acute myloid leukemia refractory/relapsed	[32]
L-Annamycin	L-Annamycin	Phase I	Acute lymphocytic and acute myloid Leukemia	[42]
Depocyte (liposomalformulation)	Cytarabine	Phase I	Acute lymphocytic leukemia	[43]
			Recurrent brain tumor	[44]
Marquibo	Vincristine sulfate	Phase I	Sarcoma	[45]
		Phase II	Neuroblastoma
CPX 351	Cytarabine and daunorubicin	Phase I	Relapsed leukemia or lymphoma	[46]

FDA: United States Food and Drug Administration.