Nanotechnological Carriers in the Treatment of Cancer: A Review

There is an urgent need of advanced techniques/technologies for the treatment of cancer as it is becoming the major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. The improvement of the cancer drug delivery system has been made possible by the formation of novel nanomaterials and nanocarriers. The nanocarriers prevent rapid degradation of the drug and thereby deliver the drug to a specific tumor site at therapeutic concentrations, meanwhile reducing the adverse/side effects by avoiding the delivery of the drug to normal sites. The antitumor activity can be enhanced by increasing the tumoral uptake of nanocarriers. By delivering the nanocarriers either by active or passive targeting, the tumoral uptake can be increased. The pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and safety profile of the drug are determined by structural and physical factors like size, charge, shape, and other surface characteristics, hence the design of the nanoparticles is an important factor. In the present review, the mechanism of cellular targeting, along with the different nanoparticles used in cancer therapy is discussed. Nanotechnology have gained huge ground due to improved diagnosis and treatment additionally saving the time and resources, which makes this technology to get more landscape for researchers/ oncologists.