Prof. Twan Lammers Twan Lammers obtained a DSc degree in Radiation Oncology from Heidelberg University in 2008 and a PhD degree in Pharmaceutics from Utrecht University in 2009. In the same year, he started the Nanomedicine and Theranostics group at the Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging RWTH Aachen University. In 2014, he was promoted to full professor at RWTH Aachen. Since 2012, he has also worked as a part-time assistant professor at the Department of Targeted Therapeutics at the University of Twente. He has published over 100 research articles and reviews, and has received several awards. He is associate editor for Europe for the Journal of Controlled Release, and serves on the editorial board member of several other journals. His primary research interests include drug targeting to tumors, image-guided drug delivery and tumor-targeted combination therapies.
Many nanomedicines have been evaluated over the years, especially for the treatment of cancer. By increasing drug accumulation at pathological sites, and by preventing localization in healthy off-target tissues, nanomedicines assist in improving the balance between the efficacy and the toxicity of (chemo-) therapeutic agents. In the present lecture, I will briefly introduce the basic principles of drug targeting to tumors, I will discuss several important conceptual pitfalls, and I will highlight some of the progress made in translating tumor-targeted nanomedicines to the clinic.