Nanotechnological carriers for cancer chemotherapy: The state of the art

Cancer is a term used for a heterogeneous group of malignant diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and are able to invade other tissues, resulting in metastasis. According to the last data of World Health Organization the incidence and mortality rates of cancer are high and tend to increase. Chemotherapy is usually used in cancer treatments, but due to the lack of specificity of drugs, is associated to various and damaging side effects that have a severe impact on patients quality of life. Nanotechnology is actually an important area of interest in science and technology, which has been extensively explored during the last decade, particularly in the development of carriers for cytotoxic drugs. These carriers include vesicular and particulate systems such as liposomes, niosomes, transfersomes, ethosomes, micelles, dendrimers, and polymeric, protein and lipid nanoparticles. Polymer-drug conjugates and antibody-drug conjugates have also been studied. The present review is an attempt to contemplate the studied nanocarriers in the field of anticancer drugs delivery, their advantages and disadvantages and future perspectives. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.