Clinical responses and tolerability of conventional nanocarriers (NCs) are sometimes different from those expected in anticancer therapy. Thus, new smart drug delivery systems (DDSs) with stimuli-responsive properties and novel materials have been developed. Several clinical trials demonstrated that these DDSs have better clinical therapeutic efficacy in the treatment of many cancers than free drugs. Composition of DDSs and their surface properties increase the specific targeting of therapeutics versus cancer cells, without affecting healthy tissues, and thus limiting their toxicity versus unspecific tissues. Herein, an extensive revision of literature on NCs used as DDSs for cancer applications has been performed using the available bibliographic databases.
Keywords: Active targeting; Anticancer therapy; Aptamers; Carbon nanostructure; Colloidal nanoparticles; Dendrimers; Drug delivery systems; Hyper-branched polymers; Lipid nanoparticles; Liposomes; Metallic nanoparticles; Nanocrystal; Passive targeting; Polymeric nanoparticles; Therapeutic proteins.