Abstract
Nanocarriers (NCs) are a group of nano-sized vehicles devised to deliver drugs to targeted malignant tissues or organs that provide remarkably improved targeting efficiency and therapeutic efficacy for cancer therapy. A variety of NCs have been developed to accommodate appropriate loading and release of drugs with a wide spectrum of chemical and physical characteristics. In addition, physicochemical modifications to the surface or interior of NCs allow for modulation of pharmacokinetic features reflecting clinical demands. However, cancer-related mortality is still high and drug-mediated cancer treatment remains a challenging research field despite the remarkable advances in targeting efficiency and therapeutic efficacy resulting from NCs. In this review, we focus on typical approaches and recent trends in NC-mediated drug delivery systems and their potential for targeted cancer therapy.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 31-43 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Cancer letters |
Volume | 374 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 Apr 28 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the grants from the National Research Foundation of Korea (No. 2014M3A9E5073316 , 2014M3C1A3054141 ), the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (No. HI15C1540 ), and the Intramural Research Program of KIST .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
Keywords
- Cancer therapy
- Combination therapy
- Drug delivery
- Nanocarrier
- Stimuli-activated therapy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research