title: Drug delivery system targeting advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: Current and future.
abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a fairly high morbidity and is notoriously difficult to treat due to long latent period before detection, multidrug resistance and severe drug-related adverse effects from chemotherapy. Targeted drug delivery systems (DDS) that can selectively deliver therapeutic drugs into tumor sites have demonstrated a great potential in cancer treatment, which could be utilized to resolve the limitations of conventional chemotherapy. Numerous preclinical studies of DDS have been published, but targeted DDS for HCC has yet to be made for practical clinical use. Since rational targeted DDS design should take cancer-specific properties into consideration, we have reviewed the biological and physicochemical properties of HCC extensively to provide a comprehensive understanding on HCC, and recent DDS studies on HCC, aiming to find some potential targeted DDSs for HCC treatment and a meaningful platform for further development of HCC treatments.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Hepatocellular carcinoma has a high incidence worldwide and is known to be multidrug resistant. Thus, intensive research is being carried out to find better chemotherapeutic agents as well as new drug delivery systems. In this article, the authors reviewed in depth the current challenges facing new drug designs and also outlined novel targeted drug delivery systems (DDS) in the fight against HCC.
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Huei Leng Helena
authors.initials: HLH
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China; Changshu Research Institute, Hong Kong Baptist University, Changshu Economic and Technological Development (CETD) Zone, Changshu, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Aiping
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Congcong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Limin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Sciences, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Ge
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Yanbo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China; Changshu Research Institute, Hong Kong Baptist University, Changshu Economic and Technological Development (CETD) Zone, Changshu, Jiangsu Province, China. Electronic address: yzhijun@hkbu.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Zhijun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address: hqzhang@hkbu.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Hongqi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents
keywords: Advanced hepatocellular carcinoma; Liver cancer; Nanomedicine; Targeted drug delivery systems