Research Progress of Drug Delivery Systems Consisting of Hydrogels Loaded with Extracellular Vesicles in Tumor Therapy

Traditional cancer therapies have limitations like poor efficacy on advanced tumors, healthy tissue damage, side effects, and drug resistance, creating an urgent need for new strategies. Hydrogels have good biocompatibility and controlled release, while extracellular vesicles (EVs) enable targeting and bioactive transport. This review systematically summarizes hydrogels and EVs, focusing on the construction of hydrogel-EV delivery system, key influencing factors, drug delivery mechanisms, and tumor therapy apps, clarifying their synergies. The system overcomes single-carrier flaws, construction methods/key factors affect performance, preclinical studies have confirmed efficacy in multiple therapies, but large-scale production and <i>in vivo</i> stability challenges remain, yet it promises to overcome the limits of traditional therapy for precision oncology.