title: Anticancer drug delivery with nanoparticles.
abstract: Nanotechnology provides a variety of nanoscale tools for medicine. Among them nanoparticles are revolutionizing the field of drug delivery. These drug nanocarriers have the potential to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of a drug, since they can be engineered to modulate the release and the stability and to prolong the circulation time of a drug, protecting it from elimination by phagocytic cells or premature degradation. Moreover, nanoscale carriers can be tailored to accumulate in tumour cells and tissues, due to enhanced permeability and a retention effect or by active targeting using ligands designed to recognize tumour-associated antigens. Could these nanomedicine tools mark an end to the necessity for loco-regional drug delivery?
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Tossicologia e Farmacologia Clinica, Ospedale S. Maria delle Croci, Ravenna, Italy. ra.hotossicologia@ausl.ra.it
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Conti
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tazzari
authors.forename: Cesare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baccini
authors.forename: Gianni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pertici
authors.forename: Lorenzo Pio
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Serino
authors.forename: Ugo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: De Giorgi
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D004337:Drug Carriers; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D050997:Nanomedicine / Q000379:methods*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D004337:Drug Carriers