Colon cancer is characterised by the persistent change in bowel habits due to the formation of
polyps (cancerous) in the inner lining of the colon. Clinically, there are several anticancer drugs available to treat
colon cancer.
Oxaliplatin (third generation
platinum drug) is widely prescribed anticancer drug due to its broad range anticancer properties and low toxicities over
cisplatin and
carboplatin. Currently, use of
oxaliplatin as
adjuvant chemotherapy represents a standard care for the treatment of advanced
colon cancer. Despite this, its rapid degradation in systemic circulations upon administration, lack of
tumor specificity, and low bioavailability limits its anticancer potential. On the other hand,
vanillic acid (VA) has shown anticancer potential in
colon cancer by targeting mTOR/Ras pathway, HIF-1α inhibition, NF-ĸB, and Nrf2 that regulate cell growth, cell survival, proliferation and adaptation to cancer microenvironment. Normal oral delivery of these two drugs offers non-specific drug release in gastrointestinal tract that leads to unwanted toxicity and very less amount of drug become available for colonic site. Therefore, loading of these two drugs in
polysaccharide based functionalized polymeric
micelles (FPMs) can offer selective targeting at colonic site and could offer better therapeutic efficacy at much lesser doses of drugs. Therefore, a new hypothesis has been proposed that the combination of
vanillic acid with
oxaliplatin co-loaded in FPMs could provide colon targeting ability with enhanced potency and safety profile by targeting multiple pathways than current adjuvant
chemotherapies available in the market for the treatment of
colon cancer.