Recently, nanomedicines have gained a great deal of attention in diverse biomedical applications, including anti-cancer therapy. Being different from normal tissue, the biophysical microenvironment of tumor cells and cancer cell mechanics should be considered for the development of nanostructures as anti-cancer agents. Throughout the last decades, many efforts devoted to investigating the distinct cancer environment and understanding the interactions between tumor cells and have been applied bio-nanomaterials. This review highlights the microenvironment of cancer cells and how it is different from that of healthy tissue. We gave special emphasis to the physiological shear stresses existing in the cancerous surroundings, since these stresses have a profound effect on cancer cell/nanoparticle interaction. Finally, this study reviews relevant examples of investigations aimed at clarifying the cellular nanoparticle uptake behavior under both static and dynamic conditions.
Keywords: anti-cancer; flow; in vitro; nanomedicine; nanoparticle; shear stress; targeted therapy.