Inhibition of metastatic bone cancer with a cascade targeting of docetaxel

Despite some advances in treating metastatic spread with docetaxel (DTX), it is almost not beneficial to treat metastatic bone cancer, a frequent lung, mammary, and prostate carcinoma complication. Therefore, a tumor-targeted platform was developed using DTX prodrug (DTX-S-DTX) enclosed inside docosahexaenoic acid-modified bovine albumin nanoparticles (DTX-S-DTX@DBNs). The biodistribution and drug release studies indicated that the DTX-S-DTX@DBNs features a cascade target delivery of DTX, from tumor vasculature to tumor tissue and then to a tumor cell. Furthermore, the DTX-S-DTX@DBNs exerted fewer side effects than that of DTX-S-DTX or DTX. Notably, the survival of the DTX-S-DTX@DBNs group (33.00 ± 2.55 d) was significantly longer compared with DTX-S-DTX group (26.71 ± 1.34 d, p < 0.01) or DTX group (25.43 ± 1.38 d, p < 0.01). The results indicated that the DTX-S-DTX@DBNs provide an exciting strategy for treating metastatic bone cancer, a significant clinical issue in lung and other cancers.