Organic nanocarriers for targeted delivery of anticancer agents

Abstract Organic nanocarriers comprising of lipid or polymeric materials find wide applications in delivery of anticancer agents to the targeted tumor tissues. These nanostructures provide unique benefits such as enhanced tumor accumulation and prolonged blood circulation leading to improved therapeutic efficacy in cancer treatments. Organic nanocarriers are responsive to surface functionalization in order to tailor their properties as per the clinical needs of the targeted cancer therapy. This chapter discusses the events taking place during cancer proliferation which creates diseased vasculature and distinct tumor microenvironment along with their exploitation in designing passively targeting nanocarriers. Further, the role of active targeting, stimuli triggering, and functionalization strategies of organic nanocarriers to achieve enhanced anticancer outcomes are discussed. Immunotherapy-based and advanced targeting approaches like monoclonal antibodies, checkpoint inhibitors, nanobodies, tumor targeting, and cell penetrating peptides as well as tumor-associated fibroblasts targeting systems inclusive of their recent clinical development in treatments of various cancers are also assimilated. Finally, the translational hurdles in development of cancer-targeting organic nanocarriers are portrayed.