Cancer Nanomedicine: from Targeted Delivery to Combination Therapy

Overview

Journal Trends Mol Med

Specialties General Medicine
Molecular Biology

Date 2015 Feb 7

PMID 25656384

Citations 183

Authors

Xiaoyang Xu

William Ho

Xueqing Zhang

Nicolas Bertrand

Omid Farokhzad

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The advent of nanomedicine marks an unparalleled opportunity to advance the treatment of various diseases, including cancer. The unique properties of nanoparticles (NPs), such as large surface-to-volume ratio, small size, the ability to encapsulate various drugs, and tunable surface chemistry, give them many advantages over their bulk counterparts. This includes multivalent surface modification with targeting ligands, efficient navigation of the complex in vivo environment, increased intracellular trafficking, and sustained release of drug payload. These advantages make NPs a mode of treatment potentially superior to conventional cancer therapies. This review highlights the most recent developments in cancer treatment using NPs as drug delivery vehicles, including promising opportunities in targeted and combination therapy.

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