Tumor metastases, that is, the development of secondary tumors in organs distant from the primary tumor, and their treatment remain a serious problem in cancer therapy. The unique challenges for tracking and treating tumor metastases lie in the small size, high heterogeneity, and wide dispersion to distant organs of metastases. Recently, nanomedicines, with the capacity to precisely deliver therapeutic agents to both primary and secondary tumors, have demonstrated many potential benefits for metastatic cancer theranostics. Given the remarkable progression in emerging nanotherapeutics for antimetastatic treatment, it is timely to summarize the latest advances in this field. This review highlights the rationale, advantages, and challenges for integrating biomedical nanotechnology with cancer biology to develop antimetastatic nanotherapeutics.
Keywords: circulating tumor cells; combination therapy; microenvironment; nanotherapeutics; tumor metastasis.
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