Mini-reviewMetronomic chemotherapy and nanocarrier platforms

- Metronomic chemotherapy represents a promising therapeutic strategy to conquer cancer progression.
- Metronomic chemotherapy could enhance tumor accumulation of nanoscale drug-delivery platforms.
- Nanocarrier-based metronomic chemotherapy enhances the therapeutic efficacy while minimizing off-target side effects.
- The best selection of cytotoxic agents to use along with issues of dosing verifies the efficacy of metronomic chemotherapy.

The therapeutic concept of administering chemotherapeutic agents continuously at lower doses, relative to the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) without drug-free breaks over extended periods -known as “metronomic chemotherapy”- is a promising approach for anti-angiogenic cancer therapy. In comparison with MTD chemotherapy regimens, metronomic chemotherapy has demonstrated reduced toxicity. However, as a monotherapy, metronomic chemotherapy has failed to provide convincing results in clinical trials. Therapeutic approaches including combining the anti-angiogenic “metronomic” therapy with conventional radio-/chemo-therapy and/or targeted delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to tumor tissues via their encapsulation with nanocarrier-based platforms have proven to potentiate the overall therapeutic outcomes. In this review, therefore, we focused on the mutual contribution made by nanoscale drug delivery platforms to the therapeutic efficacy of metronomic-based chemotherapy. In addition, the influence that the dosing schedule has on the overall therapeutic efficacy of metronomic chemotherapy is discussed.