to this glycosaminoglycan it has recently been shown that cd44 is present on epithelial cells some neuronal cells and hemopoietic cells various carcinoma cell lines and melanoma lymphoma breast colorectal and lung tumor cells one of the major functions of cd44 appears to be in regulating lymphocyte adhesion to the cells of high endothelial venules during lymphocyte migration a process that has many similarities to the metastatic dissemination of solid malignancies these receptors are involved in the regulation of proliferation of cancer cells it has been suggested that the cd44 molecule may play a vital role in determining the fate of hematogenously disseminating melanoma cells elevated levels of cd44 have been detected in carcinomas relative to normal epithelium a finding which was though to be consistent with the possibility that cd44 could play a part in regulating the invasive and metastatic process squamous metaplasia adenocarcinoma and large cell lung cancer express cd44 which is found to be marker for these types of lung cancer thus lung neoplasms exhibit high expression of cd44 the invention is a delivery vehicle with an appropriately designed ligand that will interact with a much greater avidity to cells with a high number of cd44 receptors on their surface than to cells with a low number of receptors in preferred embodiments the ligand comprises a low molecular weight hyaluronan the hyaluronan oligomer has two to about 200 sugars and preferably two to about 10 sugars the hyaluronan should have a molecular weight of less than about 100 000 preferably less than about 10 000 more preferably less than about 5 000 and yet more preferably less than about 1 000 and more than 382 other suitable glycosaminoglycans can be used.