Supporting Cancer Drug Delivery Safety

The new FlowCAM® PV Series imaging particle analysis system from laboratory instrumentation manufacturer Fluid Imaging Technologies automatically takes high-resolution, digital images of individual particles of encapsulated Paclitaxel to detect the presence of aggregates in the cancer treatment formulation and permit testing and assessment of drug delivery carriers and methods such as intravenous drip, emulsion, liposome and microsphere. Invaluable for documenting the safety of Paclitaxel in parenterals and for monitoring particulates in coatings on stents, catheters and other medical devices, the FlowCAM reveals both the Paclitaxel and its carrier in full colour and measures each particle based on the actual size and shape as imaged. The particles are characterised in real-time with up to 32 different parameters including advanced morphological properties such as perimeter, roughness, elongation and compactness, along with a host of traditional properties such as size, length, aspect ratio and ESD.

Detecting thousands of particles in a sample in less than a minute, the FlowCAM PV-40 and FlowCAM PV-100 Particle Vision series particle analysers save the images and corresponding data with a cGMP date and time stamp as tiff or jpeg files for easy review and emailing to colleagues. The FlowCAM biopharmaceutical instrumentation excels at detecting particles ranging from 2μm to 800μm in size even with samples as small as .1ml. Paclitaxel is also sold as Taxol, Abraxane®, Apo-Paclitaxel®, Aclixel, Asotax, Bristaxol, Bryoxet and Praxel.