title: Nanocarriers in cancer clinical practice: a pharmacokinetic issue.
abstract: The advent of nanocarriers for drug delivery has given rise to new intriguing scenarios in the cancer field. Nanocarriers indeed partly overcome the limits of traditional cytotoxic drugs principally changing the pharmacokinetic behavior of the parental drug. The peculiar characteristics of these systems strongly minimize the adverse reactions and ensure a more precise release of the compound to the tumor site. Several nanocarriers have been developed for the delivery of cytotoxic drugs such as paclitaxel and doxorubicin in order to improve both the outcome and the patients' quality of life. The aims of this review are to describe in detail the pharmacokinetics of nanocarriers, already marketed or in advanced clinical phases, for paclitaxel and doxorubicin, to highlight the main differences with the parental drugs, and to underline, in a critical manner, benefits and disadvantages related to the use of these new drug delivery systems.
authors: Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, National Cancer Institute, Aviano, Italy.
authors: Luciana
authors: L
authors: Giodini
authors: Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, National Cancer Institute, Aviano, Italy.
authors: Francesco Lo
authors: FL
authors: Re
authors: Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, National Cancer Institute, Aviano, Italy; Centro di Biomedicina Molecolare, CBM scrl, Trieste, Italy.
authors: Davide
authors: D
authors: Campagnol
authors: Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, National Cancer Institute, Aviano, Italy.
authors: Elena
authors: E
authors: Marangon
authors: Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, National Cancer Institute, Aviano, Italy.
authors: Bianca
authors: B
authors: Posocco
authors: Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, National Cancer Institute, Aviano, Italy.
authors: Eva
authors: E
authors: Dreussi
authors: Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, National Cancer Institute, Aviano, Italy. Electronic address: gtoffoli@cro.it.
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Toffoli
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004317:Doxorubicin / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D017239:Paclitaxel / Q000008:administration & dosage; D011788:Quality of Life
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D004337:Drug Carriers; D004317:Doxorubicin; D017239:Paclitaxel
keywords: Nanocarrier; cancer; doxorubicin; paclitaxel; pharmacokinetics