Nanoparticle therapeutics for prostate cancer treatment

The application of nanotechnology in medicine is offering many exciting possibilities in healthcare. Engineered nanoparticles have the potential to revolutionize the diagnosis and the therapy of several diseases, particularly by targeted delivery of anticancer drugs and imaging contrast agents. Prostate cancer, the second most common cancer in men, represents one of the major epidemiological problems, especially for patients in the advanced age. There is a substantial interest in developing therapeutic options for treatment of prostate cancer based on use of nanodevices, to overcome the lack of specificity of conventional chemotherapeutic agents as well as for the early detection of precancerous and malignant lesions. Herein, we highlight on the recent development of nanotechnology strategies adopted for the management of prostate cancer. In particular, the combination of targeted and controlled-release polymer nanotechnologies has recently resulted in the clinical development of BIND-014, a promising targeted Docetaxel-loaded nanoprototype, which can be validated for use in the prostate cancer therapy. However, several limitations facing nanoparticle delivery to solid tumours, such as heterogeneity of intratumoural barriers and vasculature, cytotoxicity and/or hypersensitivity reactions to currently available cancer nanomedicines, and the difficult in developing targeted nanoparticles with optimal biophysicochemical properties, should be still addressed for a successful tumour eradication. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.