Drug delivery: beyond active tumour targeting.
Despite improvements in our understanding of cancer and the concept of personalised medicine, cancer is still a major cause of death. It is established that solid tumours are highly heterogeneous, with a complex tumour microenvironment. Indeed, the tumour microenvironment is made up of a collection of immune cells, cancer-activated fibroblasts, and endothelial cells and in some cases a dense extracellular matrix. Accumulating evidence shows that the tumour microenvironment is a major barrier for the effective delivery of therapeutic drugs to tumour cells. Importantly, nanotechnology has come to the forefront as highly effective delivery vehicles for therapeutic agents. This perspective will discuss how nanomedicine can be used to target and deliver therapeutic drugs specifically to tumour cells. Moreover, emerging opportunities to modulate the tumour microenvironment and increase the delivery and efficacy of chemotherapy agents to solid tumours will be highlighted.


BACKGROUND
Improving drug delivery to treatment resistant tumors is a major target of many nanomedicine-based applications. This comprehensive review discusses the currently available and emerging opportunities, in addition to discussing tumor microenvironment modulation to facilitate efficient delivery.
Australian Centre for Nanomedicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Children's Cancer Institute Australia, Lowy Cancer Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Randwick, Australia.
Sharon M
SM
Sagnella
Australian Centre for Nanomedicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Children's Cancer Institute Australia, Lowy Cancer Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Randwick, Australia.
Joshua A
JA
McCarroll
Australian Centre for Nanomedicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Children's Cancer Institute Australia, Lowy Cancer Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Randwick, Australia. Electronic address: m.kavallaris@ccia.unsw.edu.au.
Maria
M
Kavallaris
D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D050997:Nanomedicine / Q000379:methods; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment / Q000187:drug effects
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents
Drug delivery; Nanomedicine; Tumour microenvironment