title: Nanomedicine in cancer therapy: challenges, opportunities, and clinical applications.
abstract: Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. Currently available therapies are inadequate and spur demand for improved technologies. Rapid growth in nanotechnology towards the development of nanomedicine products holds great promise to improve therapeutic strategies against cancer. Nanomedicine products represent an opportunity to achieve sophisticated targeting strategies and multi-functionality. They can improve the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles of conventional therapeutics and may thus optimize the efficacy of existing anti-cancer compounds. In this review, we discuss state-of-the-art nanoparticles and targeted systems that have been investigated in clinical studies. We emphasize the challenges faced in using nanomedicine products and translating them from a preclinical level to the clinical setting. Additionally, we cover aspects of nanocarrier engineering that may open up new opportunities for nanomedicine products in the clinic.
authors.affiliation: Division of Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wicki
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmaceutical Technology, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Witzigmann
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Vimalkumar
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Balasubramanian
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmaceutical Technology, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: joerg.huwyler@unibas.ch.
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huwyler
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D050997:Nanomedicine; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*
keywords: Cancer nanomedicine; Clinical trials; Drug delivery; Liposome; Nanoparticle; Targeting