Nanotechnology for Cancer Chemotherapy

This chapter will provide an in-depth discussion on the development of nanometer-sized carriers for the treatment of cancer. Anti-cancer drugs given systemically remain problematic due to their non-specificity. These cytotoxic drugs destroy both cancerous and normal cells of the body, thus leading to potentially fatal side effects. In recent developments, new cytotoxic drugs have yielded compounds with poor physiochemical properties which require alternate routes in their delivery to the diseased tissue. The use of nanoparticles for the delivery of chemotherapeutics to cancer lesions and their microenvironment has offered solutions to the problems associated with conventional administration, delivery, and formulation of chemotherapeutics. Nanoparticles, submicron-sized colloidal structures, have shown to extravasate across tumor vascular walls, penetrate into the tumor interstitium, target surface receptors on cancer cells, and control the release of the anti-cancer drug locally. The design in the surface of the colloidal carrier is important in achieving a biocompatible, long circulating, and targeted drug delivery particulate system. The rational approach in engineering colloidal carriers with the potential to treat cancer is discussed and examples of drug delivery systems which have demonstrated therapeutic efficacy are provided.