**1. Introduction**

Malignant tumors of the orbit represents the main cause for 41–45.9% of orbital tumors [1, 2] and they will threaten both the organ of vision and the life of the patient. According to some authors [2], recurrence of malignant tumors of the orbit within 5 years was observed in 36 of the 56 patients who were observed and recurrence of the tumor was observed in 64.3% of patients who died in subsequent years. As can be seen from the above data, the results of treatment of malignant tumors of the orbit are not satisfactory. In the analysis group of 56 patients with malignant tumors, only 36% had a 5-year survival.

The main method of treatment of orbit tumors is surgery, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy [3, 4].

However, surgical treatment of malignant tumors of the orbit leads to anatomical and functional damage. Independent use of radiation therapy does not lead to the desired result. In recent years, with the advent of new drugs and a deeper understanding of the theory of chemotherapy, the effectiveness of chemotherapy for malignant tumors has improved significantly. The clinician always has the task of creating a sufficient concentration of the drug in the tumor area in order to obtain a therapeutic result and at the same time minimize the load on healthy cells during the local tumor process.

In our opinion, increasing the effectiveness of treatment of such type of tumor can be detetcted by deleviring high concentration of doxorubicin in the tumor in the following ways;


To implement the first task, we needed to develop non-biological implants with a porous hollow structure that are capable of biointegration with the surrounding orbital tissues.

**213**

*Improving the Antitumor Effect of Doxorubicin in the Treatment of Eyeball and Orbital Tumors*

**2. To develop non-biological implants and study the soft tissue response** 

Such capabilities are possessed by hydrogels - spatially crosslinked hydrophilic polymers that have been successfully used for several decades as materials for tissue engineering and plastic surgery, means for targeted transport of drugs, optical and analytical sensors, matrices for biological research [5], etc. Abnormally high compared with solid polymers, the biocompatibility of gels with high equilibrium water content, primarily due to the similarity of their 3D structure with the extracellular matrix [6]. Achieving a significant improvement in the physicochemical and operational parameters of gels seems to be possible by obtaining a hybrid hydrogel material based on polyvinyl alcohol and acrylic hydrogel, which was the subject of

**Material and methods.** Gels based on acrylic acid (AAc) were obtained by radical polymerization of an aqueous solution of monomers (AAc and N, N′-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA)) at a temperature of 70°С. Matrices based on polyvinylformal (PVF) were obtained by treating polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with

Experimental studies were conducted on the basis of the vivarium of the State Institution "The Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the NAMS of Ukraine". Experimental studies were performed on rabbits of the Chinchilla breed, weighing 2–3 kg, aged 5–6 months, which during the study were in the same living conditions. All experimental studies were conducted in compliance with ethical standards provided by the international principles of the European Convention on the Protection of Vertebrate Animals Used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes (Strasbourg, 1986) and the norms of biomedical ethics approved by the First National Congress of Bioethics of Ukraine), as well as the law of Ukraine №3447-IV "On protection of animals from cruel treatment" (Kyiv, 2006).

To study the reaction of the soft tissues of the orbit and auricle, we used an implant hybrid hydrogel developed at the Ovcharenko Institute of Biocolloid Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv. We implanted a hybrid hydrogel in a scleral sac; orbital tissue and in the ear tissue of rabbits.

We implanted a hybrid hydrogel implant into the scleral sac, parabulbar tissue of

Surgical interventions were performed under general anesthesia (at the rate of 1 ml of 0.1% sodium thiopental solution per 1 kg of rabbit body weight intramuscularly). Evaluation of the response of soft tissues and bone structures to implant materials was carried out on the basis of analysis of changes in clinical and pathomorphological parameters was performed after 10, 30 and 60 days. Evaluation of the studied clinical signs (swelling of the tissues of the orbit, cheeks, auricle, the condition of the sutures, the presence of secretions) was performed on the 2nd, 5th, 10th and then every five days. Pathohistological evaluation of oculoorbital tissues,

**Results and discussion.** Analysis of scanning electron micrographs of the hybrid hydrogel material showed that its structure is characterized by a well-developed system of connected pores smaller than 1 mm, as well as the presence of pores with a diameter of several hundred micrometers. It should also be noted that the pore walls have a porous structure with an approximate pore diameter of 10 μm and a wall thickness of several micrometers. Thus, due to partial squeezing of the gelforming composition from the pore space of the spongy polymer matrix based on the PVF, it was possible to prevent clogging of open and combined transport pores,

orbit and auricle tissue was performed after 10, 30 and 60 days.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95080*

one of the studies performed by the authors [7].

formaldehyde in the presence of a strong acid.

the eyeball and auricle of a rabbit/.

**to it**

*Improving the Antitumor Effect of Doxorubicin in the Treatment of Eyeball and Orbital Tumors DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95080*
