Cancer is a leading cause of mortality worldwide. Cell membrane-coated nanocarriers actively targeting tumor sites are known to circumvent the limitations of conventional treatments and nanosized drug delivery systems. Cell membrane-coated nanocarriers can evade the immune system and can target tumors, thereby exhibiting a prolonged circulation time, enhancing tumor accumulation, increasing cancer therapeutic efficacy, and facilitating tumor imaging in vivo. Numerous studies have focused on cell membrane-coated nanocarriers homing to tumors. The use of these biomimetic nanocarriers in combination with photothermal or photodynamic cancer therapy have received increasing attention. This review discusses various sources of cell membranes, which have been harnessed previously in this field and highlights the mechanism underlying the targeting action of these nanocarriers and the method of their extraction, along with the applications of biomimetic cell membrane-coated nanocarriers in cancer phototherapy and diagnosis. Finally, this review discusses prospects in methods to resist cancer metastasis.
Keywords: Biomimetic nanocarrier; Cancer metastasis; Cell membrane; Drug delivery; Tumor targeting.
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