Nanocarriers in cancer clinical practice: a pharmacokinetic issue

The advent of nanocarriers for drug delivery has given rise to new intriguing scenarios in the cancer field. Nanocarriers indeed partly overcome the limits of traditional cytotoxic drugs principally changing the pharmacokinetic behavior of the parental drug. The peculiar characteristics of these systems strongly minimize the adverse reactions and ensure a more precise release of the compound to the tumor site. Several nanocarriers have been developed for the delivery of cytotoxic drugs such as paclitaxel and doxorubicin in order to improve both the outcome and the patients' quality of life. The aims of this review are to describe in detail the pharmacokinetics of nanocarriers, already marketed or in advanced clinical phases, for paclitaxel and doxorubicin, to highlight the main differences with the parental drugs, and to underline, in a critical manner, benefits and disadvantages related to the use of these new drug delivery systems.

Graphical AbstractAdvancements in nanotechnology field have opened the way to innovative therapeutic prospective for cancer patients, offering new potentialities to traditional cytotoxic drugs. In particular, novel delivery systems are completely revolutionizing the pharmacokinetic behavior of standard drugs. The major benefits derived from these changes are extended t1/2, enhanced immune system escape, decreased RES Cl and Vd, increased biocompatibility, and accumulation into solid tumors due to EPR effect. This review aims to describe, in a critical manner, the pharmacokinetics of these innovative nanocarriers highlighting the main differences with traditional drugs.311