title: Multifunctional anti-cancer nano-platforms are moving to clinical trials.
abstract: Cancer management needs rapid, non-invasive diagnosis and tumour-specific therapeutics which is unfortunately lacking for most cancer types. Novel approaches for cancer management aim at providing customized therapy according to individual diagnoses, determined by gene expression profiling, in particular, targeting highly selective monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to single cancer cell antigens, in combination with highly cytotoxic drugs, thereby avoiding the unwanted side effects of conventional chemotherapy. Multifunctional nano-vectors that combine new and more powerful drugs and/or probes for diagnostic imaging with tumour surface-specific ligands/antibodies have been developed. These nano-vectors have displayed superior selective anti-tumour activity compared to antibodies or standard anti-cancer drugs/agents alone both in-vitro, and in preclinical and clinical models. Anti-cancer nano-platforms can significantly improve early cancer detection and ameliorate therapeutic strategies. In the immediate future nano-technology may enable the simultaneous early detection and selective inactivation of cancer cells before they develop into full blown tumours.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Farmacologia Traslazionale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Esposito
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Crema
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ponzetto
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Murtas
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Carloni
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000008:administration & dosage; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D015195:Drug Design; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D057285:Precision Medicine / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents