Clinical Applications of Polymeric Micelle Carrier Systems in Chemotherapy and Image Diagnosis of Solid Tumors

Polymeric micelles are assemblies of synthetic polymers and have been studied and developed as drug carriers for targeting solid tumors. Physicochemical characters and medical advantages of the polymeric micelle carrier systems are summarized, followed by an explanation of their recent application for contrast agent targeting. In the final section, future perspectives on the polymeric micelle carrier systems for tumor targeting are discussed, including a novel combination of contrast agent targeting and drug targeting that achieves tumor-specific image diagnosis and tumor-selective chemotherapy, respectively.