NANOTECHNOLOGY-BASED DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS FOR CANCER THERAPY: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF COLON, GASTRIC, HEPATOCELLULAR AND LUNG CANCERS

Many treatment shortcomings are attributed to a poor drug delivery strategy for the treatment of cancer: low drug bioavailability, lack of targeting to cancer tissue, systemic toxicity, emergence of multidrug resistance and metastasis. Here, nanotechnology has attracted attention and its application in chemotherapy with drugs like 5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin, irinotecan, rapamycin and folinic acid as cargo molecule has been reported for targeting colon cancer with solid lipid nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles, liposomes and siRNA nanoparticles. They improved bioavailability and targeting of the drugs and showed increased anticancer efficiency, co-delivery showed enhanced prevention of both tumor growth and invasion with lower toxicity. In case of gastric cancer, nanotechnology drug delivery systems were utilized with 5-fluorouracil, docetaxel, LY294002, paclitaxel, epirubicin and platinum-based drugs through using chitosan, acid-conjugated chitosan, PLGA nanoparticles, ginsenoside liposomes, polymeric micelles and polydopamine nanoparticles. The nanocarriers have significantly enhanced cellular uptake, enhanced retention time, accumulation at the tumor site, and potency to kill tumors with fewer toxicities and significantly reduced peripheral neuropathy developed as a side effect of treatment. Nanocarriers loaded with lenvatinib, sorafenib and doxorubicin for hepatocellular carcinoma demonstrated enhanced clinical performance. Lenvatinib presented 23.3% response, 76.7% disease control, 14-months OS and so on, while sorafenib formulations showed great pharmacokinetic enhancement, tumor accumulation and high potent of therapeutic action with better encapsulation efficiency (87%) and doxorubicin nanoparticles showed 85.98% apoptosis rates, with non-hemolysis activity of merely 2.82% that represents higher antitumor efficacy and less toxicity. Starch nanoparticles, inhalable nanoliposomes, CSO-modified liposomes, PLGA nanoparticles and folate-targeted liposomal and albumin nanocarriers for lung cancer using gefitinib, osimertinib, paclitaxel, docetaxel, vinorelbine and doxorubicin exhibited enhanced cellular uptake, sustained release of drugs, strong tumor targeting action with better anti-tumorigenesis and tumor metastasis with improved outcomes of patients. Furthermore, some of them are also found effective in overcoming drug resistance of cisplatin for lung cancer treatment. Taken together, in all the applications mentioned above nanotechnology-drug delivery systems have showed the promise ability in addressing the issue of delivery, efficacy and security in the treatment of colon, gastric, liver and lung cancers.