Convection-Enhanced Delivery of Polymeric Nanoparticles Encapsulating Chemotherapy in Canines with Spontaneous Supratentorial Tumors

Despite aggressive multimodal treatment, survival for patients with glioblastoma remains dismal. One obstacle to improving patient outcomes is the difficulty in delivering adequate therapeutic to the central nervous system due to the presence of the blood–brain barrier. Although direct drug infusion by convection-enhanced delivery (CED) can bypass the blood–brain barrier and facilitate delivery to intracranial tumors, determining the distribution of delivered therapeutic remains problematic. Image guidance is a strategy that can optimize the accuracy of therapeutic delivery. Here we performed an open-label clinical trial in 10 pet dogs with spontaneous intracranial tumors to examine the target coverage accuracy of delivering polymeric magnetite nanoparticles (PMNPs) encapsulating temozolomide (TMZ). A modified small animal frame was applied to the head of each subject, and PMNPs were delivered stereotactically to the center of the tumor. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed immediately postoperatively to examine PMNP distribution, and the animals were followed until death. Nine of the 10 dogs underwent PMNP infusion without complications. No infusate backflow was observed during any procedure. In 70% of the cases, the infusion accurately targeted the tumor mass, as determined by the presence of PMNP signal in the tumor on immediate postoperative MRI. These data suggest that CED of PMNPs carrying TMZ is safe in dogs with intracranial tumors and can lead to nanoparticle distribution in the region of the target. Image guidance is an important adjunct to CED, because distribution is unpredictable, with the potential for missed target delivery. •Spontaneous canine gliomas closely resemble human tumors.•Convection-enhanced delivery (CED) of polymeric nanoparticles is safe in dogs with supratentorial tumors.•Distribution of nanoparticles is not predictable following CED.•Following CED, imaging is essential to verify therapeutic agent distribution.