Nanoparticle drug delivery systems in solid tumor therapy

Yuan Dong^{1,2, #}, Xuanyi Yang^1#, Cen Yan¹, Yingmei Feng^1,2*

¹Department of Science and Technology, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100069, China

²Laboratory for Clinical Medicine, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100069, China

Abstract

Cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality that severely threatens life expectancy. Chemotherapy is the most common regimen for cancer patients. However, low drug availability in tumor site and its off-target effect elicit toxicity and attenuate the efficacy of chemotherapy. To overcome that, nanoparticles (NPs) have been delicately designed as carriers for tumor diagnosis and drug delivery. Being formulated and bioengineered such as chemical modification and conjugation of peptide and antibody, NPs hold distinct advantages for better biocompatibility, bioavailability and tumor cell targeting. Hereby, we first overviewed various NP formulations on cancer cell tracing and drug delivery system. Then, we performed PubMed search for NPs involved chemotherapy in clinical trials of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and breast cancer. When NPs drug system was applied for monotherapy or drug cocktail, patients were well tolerated and achieved better efficacy in most studies, as evidenced by few months of prolonged overall survival and progression-free-survival in patients among all ages. However, how to achieve long-time survival and better life quality is not covered yet. For perspectives, multimodal regimens are required to enhance targeting efficiency in which NPs delivery system is synergized and integrated with pharmacological and physical treatment.

Keywords：nanoparticles, solid tumor, drug delivery, clinical trials, regimens