Background: Limited accessibility of drugs to the tumor tissues, the requirement of high doses, intolerable cytotoxicity, the development of multiple drug resistance and non-specific targeting are obstacles to the clinical use of cancer drugs and cancer therapy.
Objective: Drug delivery through carrier systems to cancerous tissue is no longer simply wrapping up cancer drugs in a new formulation for different routes of delivery, rather the focus is on targeted cancer therapy.
Methods: This review summarizes the exploitation of drug-loaded nanocarrier conjugates with various targeting moieties for the delivery and targeting of anticancer drugs and describes the current status of and challenges in the field of nanocarrier-aided drug delivery and drug targeting.
Conclusion: The discovery of targeting ligand to cancer cells and the development of ligand-targeted therapy will help us to improve therapeutic efficacy and reduce side effects. Unlike other forms of therapy, it will allow us to maintain quality of life for patients, while efficiently attacking the cancer tissue. It indicates that ligands have a pivotal role in cancer cell targeting.