Superselective Drug Delivery Using Doxorubicin-Encapsulated Liposomes and Ultrasound in a Mouse Model of Lung Metastasis Activation

Conventional treatment of lymph node metastasis involves dissection of the tumor and regional lymph nodes, but this may cause activation of latent metastatic tumor cells. However, there are few reports on animal models regarding the activation of latent metastatic tumor cells and effective methods of treating activated tumor cells. Here, we report the use of a superselective drug delivery system in a mouse model of lung metastasis in which activated tumor cells are treated with doxorubicin-encapsulated liposomes (DOX-LP) and ultrasound. The axillary lymph node was injected with DOX-LP and exposed to ultrasound so that the released DOX would be delivered from the axillary lymph node to the metastatic lung via the subclavian vein, heart and pulmonary artery. The size of the DOX-LP was optimized to a diameter of 460 nm using indocyanine green-encapsulated liposomes, and the ultrasound intensity was 0.5 W/cm². We found that compared with DOX or DOX-LP alone, the superselective drug delivery system was effective in the treatment of metastasis in both the lung and axillary lymph node. We anticipate that this superselective drug delivery system will be a starting point for the development of new techniques for treating lung metastasis in the clinical setting. Furthermore, the superselective drug delivery system may be used to screen novel drugs for the treatment of lung cancer and investigate the mechanisms of tumor cell activation after resection of a primary tumor or lymph nodes.