Smart Nanocarriers for Targeted Breast Cancer Therapy: Liposomes, Dendrimers, and Beyond

The possibility of smart nanocarriers for targeted drug delivery in breast cancer therapy, providing solutions for some major challenges in treating breast cancer, such as unselective drug delivery, drugs induced systemic toxicity, and multi-drug resistance. Using receptor-mediated targeting combined with the by Enhanced Permeability and Retention effect, it show here that the use of nanoparticle delivery systems allows for increased drug delivery to tumors, while sparing normal organs. The presence of biodegradable and biocompatible nanocarriers such as liposomes, dendrimers and polymeric Nanoparticles further improves the therapeutic effect by defeating the chemotherapeutic resistance. Both in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate marked tumor shrinking and metastases decreasing, as well as prolonged overall survival. Although scalability, product-to-product synchrony, and chronic toxicity represent considerable bottlenecks in the development of these therapeutics, lessons learned from these studies could guide future development, especially with enhanced, smart nanocarriers that supports in situ sensing, on-demand drug release and combinations with precision medicine or immunotherapy. This study offers a roadmap to better, tailored breast cancer treatments that could make a huge difference to outcomes for patients and reduce the cost of treatment.