Hypothesis of using albumin to improve drug efficacy in cancers accompanied by hypoalbuminemia

Abstract

1. A common problem in many cancers is the resistance of some patients to common drugs or relapse. Hypoalbuminemia has been reported in some of resistant cancer patients.

2. This article evaluates the usefulness of albumin in the treatment of drug-resistant cancers with hypoalbuminemia based on available evidences.

3. Rapid metabolism and drug excretion from the body is one of the causes of drug resistance. Albumin is the major plasma protein to which almost all drugs are bound. There is some evidence that increasing drug binding to albumin has beneficial effects on drug efficacy in some cancers and cancer cells. On the other hand, some reports have shown that cancer cells can use albumin as the energy and amino acid source.

4. We have hypothesized that in this particular group of cancers, adding albumin to a treatment regimen could have a beneficial effect on drug efficacy and dosage. In fact, excess albumin can prevent rapid metabolism of drug by increasing the fraction of albumin-bound drug, and can increase drug delivery to cancer cells due to the absorption of drug-albumin complex by cancer cells.

Keywords:

• Solid tumour
• advanced cancer
• albumin administration
• pharmacokinetics

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences for providing the conditions for conducting this research, and the colleagues of the Medical Biology Research Center, especially Dr. Amir Hossein Norooznezhad, for their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.