Efficiency of Transdermal Drug Delivery Systems for the Treatment of Breast Cancer: A Systematic Literature Review

Background: To date, various methods have been developed for cancer treatment, among which transdermal drug delivery has attracted increasing attention due to its reduced side effects and higher patient acceptance. The current study aimed to systematically review available documents on the efficiency of transdermal drug delivery in treating breast cancer. Furthermore, the efficacy and success rate of this method were compared with other conventional drug administration methods. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed using PubMed, Scopus, Ovid, ScienceDirect, EMBASE, and Google Scholar databases. Due to limited data in this field, all available human and animal studies were included for data extraction. Three authors independently assessed the selected documents and extracted the relevant data. Results: Only two human trials involving 87 women, in addition to 16 animal studies, were included. The results of the included studies showed that transdermal drug delivery may be superior to oral and injectable routes of drug administration due to higher efficacy, lower side effects, and higher patient acceptability. Conclusion: Transdermal drug delivery can be considered a preferred method for site-specific drug administration, which can produce a high local drug concentration while maintaining low circulating drug levels, reducing the risk of adverse side effects and decreasing the frequency of drug administration.