Role of Nanoparticles in Cancer Therapy

The rapid growth of nanotechnology towards the development of nanomedicines has improved cancer treatment. Nanomedicine provides the opportunity to implement complex and targeted multifunctional strategies. Today, nanoparticles (NPs) have many uses in a number of scientific fields. In recent years, it has been repeatedly reported that NPs hold a significant place in the regulation of modern medicine by implementing a varying number of clinical approaches like drug carrying substances, genetic material delivery to tumors, as well as in radiography as a contrast media agent. Various nanomaterials based on organic, inorganic, lipid or glycan compounds, and synthetic polymers have been used to develop and improve new cancer treatments. In this chapter, the authors discussed the role of NPs in cancer treatment among various anticancer drug delivery methods.

Advances in the Application of Liposomal Nanosystems in Anticancer Therapy

Cancer is the disease with the highest mortality rate, which poses a great threat to people’s lives. Cancer caused approximately 3.4 million death worldwide annually. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the main therapeutic methods in clinical practice. However, surgery is only suitable for patients with early-stage cancers, and chemotherapy as well as radiotherapy have various side effects, both of which limit the application of available therapeutic methods. In 1965, liposome was firstly developed to form new drug delivery systems given the unique properties of nanoparticles, such as enhanced permeability and retention effect. During the last 5 decades, liposome has been widely used for the purpose of anticancer drug delivery, and several advances have been made regarding liposomal technology, including long-circulating liposomes, active targeting liposomes and triggered release liposomes, while problems exist all along. This review introduced the advances as well as the problems during the development of liposomal nanosystems for cancer therapy in recent years.