Targeted Drug Delivery in Oncology: Recent Advances in Nanoparticle-BasedChemotherapeutics

Abstract

Cancer is one such health concern that has been ravaging and taking away many people
worldwide in the last four decades despite the four decades of therapeutic progress. Even
though traditional chemotherapy is an ancient treatment option, its use is restricted because of
its extreme systemic toxicity, nonspecific ablation of normal tissues, and emergence of
multidrug resistance. Such a weakness results in making the treatment non-sustainable in the
long term and restricting the survival of patients. In order to overcome such barriers,
nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems (NDDS) have emerged as a significant and possibly
disruptive technology in cancer therapy. The advantages of NDDS are improved aqueous
solubility of the poorly water-soluble compounds, prolongation of circulation half-life,
improved pharmacokinetics, and passive and active targeting of tumor tissue. Besides this
NDDS can be regulated drug delivery, stimulus responsive and therapeutic specificity in off-
target effect to the cost. They might also serve as versatile vectors to co-release
chemotherapeutics and biomolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins/immune modulators and
offer synergistic and personalized therapy. To enhance compatibility and uptake of NDDS by
the device, the engineering of flexibility of the structure and surfaces to enable the device to
operate in the heterogeneous tumor microenvironment is also enhanced. Moreover,
theranostics has been created to have diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities that allow real
time therapy monitoring. This review gives a summary on the design strategies and delivery
system, targeting, preclinical and clinical outcomes, and approved nanomedicines and
emerging nanocarriers technologies.