Systemic Delivery of Nanoformulations of Anti-cancer Drugs with Therapeutic Potency in Animal Models of Cancer

Despite being widely used for cancer treatment, conventional chemotherapeutic regimens based on anti-cancer drugs possess significant drawbacks in discriminating between normal and cancer cells, leading to detrimental effects on healthy tissues. The development of nano-formulations encapsulating the chemotherapy drugs is highly expected to improve the anti-cancer activities with favorable pharmacokinetic profile and consequentially minimized side-effects. Several organic and inorganic nanoparticles have received tremendous attention as carriers of various anticancer drugs in pre-clinical and clinical settings. In this review, we discuss on the progress of formulating and investigating various nano-formulationsin treating different cancers, with an emphasis on in vivo studies utilizing the nanoparticles for carrying small molecular weight anti-cancer drugs and focusing on the biocompatibility, targeting capability, cellular uptake, and the tumor regression efficacy of those nano-formulations.