Nanoscale drug delivery for targeted chemotherapy

• Effective treatment of neoplastic diseases still presents major challenges.
• Nanotechnology provides a new opportunity for the targeted delivery of cancer drugs.
• Nano-drug delivery systems can destroy cancer cells and carry chemotherapy drugs.
• Nanoscale delivery of chemotherapy agents has greater therapeutic benefit than either treatment modality alone.
• Nanoscale delivery of chemotherapy is a novel targeted chemotherapeutic approach.

Despite significant improvements in diagnostic methods and innovations in therapies for specific cancers, effective treatments for neoplastic diseases still represent major challenges. Nanotechnology as an emerging technology has been widely used in many fields and also provides a new opportunity for the targeted delivery of cancer drugs. Nanoscale delivery of chemotherapy drugs to the tumor site is highly desirable. Recent studies have shown that nanoscale drug delivery systems not only have the ability to destroy cancer cells but may also be carriers for chemotherapy drugs. Some studies have demonstrated that delivery of chemotherapy via nanoscale carriers has greater therapeutic benefit than either treatment modality alone. In this review, novel approaches to nanoscale delivery of chemotherapy are described and recent progress in this field is discussed.