A Recent Review on Cancer Nanomedicine

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The advancement of nanotechnology over the last three decades has given new hope to cancer management. The first FDA-approved nanomedicine (DOXIL) was made available in the market in 1995. Since then, numerous nanocarriers have been synthesized and extensively evaluated for antitumor efficacy to establish them as premier therapeutic tools. Even though nanomedicine is one of the most promising breakthroughs in the modern era of medicine, several challenges are still faced during scaling up from a laboratory setup to a clinical arrangement. In this review, we describe and compare various types of nanoparticles and their role in advancing cancer treatment. Moreover, we highlight various nanomedicines currently available for cancer therapy and nanoformulations that are through various stages of clinical testing. ABSTRACT: Cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases globally and is the second major cause of death in the United States. Despite the continuous efforts to understand tumor mechanisms and various approaches taken for treatment over decades, no significant improvements have been observed in cancer therapy. Lack of tumor specificity, dose-related toxicity, low bioavailability, and lack of stability of chemotherapeutics are major hindrances to cancer treatment. Nanomedicine has drawn the attention of many researchers due to its potential for tumor-specific delivery while minimizing unwanted side effects. The application of these nanoparticles is not limited to just therapeutic uses; some of them have shown to have extremely promising diagnostic potential. In this review, we describe and compare various types of nanoparticles and their role in advancing cancer treatment. We further highlight various nanoformulations currently approved for cancer therapy as well as under different phases of clinical trials. Finally, we discuss the prospect of nanomedicine in cancer management.