Progress in the polymer-paclitaxel conjugate

Paclitaxel (PTX) is one of the natural products used as first- or second-line treatment of cancer. It has a wide spectrum of activity against various cancer types, but low solubility in water, and toxicity to normal tissues such as hypersensitivity reaction and neuropathy limited its applications. The serious endeavors have been made to design and fabricate a more favorable nanoformulation lowering the inherent toxicity and side effects of PTX. The polymer-drug conjugates as a class of polymer-based nanomedicines have been reported to reduce adverse effects, enhance uptake and accumulation in tumor cells, potentiate therapeutic efficacy and improve patient compliance compared to polymer-encapsulated drugs. Collectively, very old PTX as cytotoxic drug bound to polymer has enormous potential and broad prospects. In this review, we mainly pay attention to summarize progress in the polymer-PTX conjugates designed and evaluated in recent decades to potentiate the therapeutic efficacy and tackle adverse effects of PTX.