Nanomedicine for Delivery of Drugs in Breast Cancer: Recent Advances and Prospects

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the most invasive cancers, with a high mortality rate; almost all treatment options are invasive, with significant side effects, and not always curative. Nanomedicine, the application of nanotechnology to medicine, is an interesting approach to improving the delivery of anticancer drugs, thus increasing their therapeutic index and specificity, while reducing side effects. This chapter describe the most widely studied nanoparticulate drug delivery systems, also discussing nanocarriers in clinics and recent advances in targeted drug delivery approaches for breast cancer treatment.

Keywords: Active targeting, anticancer drugs, breast cancer, cancer therapy, clinical trial, clinical use, dendrimers, drug delivery, EPR effect, inorganic nanoparticles, lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, multidrug resistance, nanomedicine, passive targeting, polymeric micelles, polymeric nanoparticles.