Pharm. Kaat De Clercq graduated as pharmacist in 2013 from Ghent University where she obtained her master in Drug Development. She performed her master thesis titled “Formulation and Characterization of Liquid Crystal Platforms for the Treatment of Peritoneal Disease” at Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom. In 2013, she started her PhD research on intraperitoneal drug delivery at the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Technology.
Summary of Research Project
Ovarian cancer patients are mostly diagnosed at an advanced stage with the presence of peritoneal metastases and a poor prognosis. Recently, chemotherapy has been intraperitoneally (IP) administered after cytoreductive surgery to improve treatment outcome. Despite an improvement of overall survival, recurrence remains high due to the short exposure time of chemotherapeutics. Currently, chemotherapeutics are off-label used and lack optimal characteristics for intraperitoneal drug delivery. Additionally, homogeneous drug distribution can be hindered due to the presence of peritoneal adhesions, affecting efficacy of IP chemotherapy. Peritoneal adhesions are a common complication after major abdominal surgery, compromising quality of life of patients. A formulation that distributes evenly in the abdominal cavity, thereby providing a sustained release of chemotherapy and simultaneously prevents peritoneal adhesions is of high clinical interest. Paclitaxel-loaded genipin-crosslinked gelatin microspheres (PTX-GP-MS) are developed and characterised for IP drug delivery. Their ability to prevent peritoneal adhesions and recurrence of peritoneal carcinomatosis are evaluated in specific mouse models.
