title: Recent advances of cocktail chemotherapy by combination drug delivery systems.
abstract: Combination chemotherapy is widely exploited for enhanced cancer treatment in the clinic. However, the traditional cocktail administration of combination regimens often suffers from varying pharmacokinetics among different drugs. The emergence of nanotechnology offers an unparalleled opportunity for developing advanced combination drug delivery strategies with the ability to encapsulate various drugs simultaneously and unify the pharmacokinetics of each drug. This review surveys the most recent advances in combination delivery of multiple small molecule chemotherapeutics using nanocarriers. The mechanisms underlying combination chemotherapy, including the synergistic, additive and potentiation effects, are also discussed with typical examples. We further highlight the sequential and site-specific co-delivery strategies, which provide new guidelines for development of programmable combination drug delivery systems. Clinical outlook and challenges are also discussed in the end.
authors.affiliation: Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA; Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
authors.forename: Quanyin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA; Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
authors.forename: Wujin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA; Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA; Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA; Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. Electronic address: zgu@email.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*
keywords: Cancer; Chemotherapy; Combination; Drug delivery; Nanocarriers