The invention is a drug delivery system of a delivery vehicle having a low
molecular weight hyaluronan ligand with an affinity for CD44 receptors.
Preferably, the delivery vehicle is a liposome but other suitable
delivery vehicles include micropspheres, micelles, emulsions, lipid
discs, polymers, viral particles and viruses. The systems of the
invention may further comprise a drug, which can be any anticancer agent
or other therapeutic or diagnostic agent. The invention also comprises
methods of delivering a drug to a cell that expresses CD44 by contacting
the cell with the drug delivery system. Further methods include treating
a patient with cancer and targeting drug delivery to cells that express
CD44 by attaching a glycosaminoglycan ligand.