Liposome-based drug co-delivery systems in cancer cells

•This paper focuses on the recent advances of cancer drug delivery systems employing liposomal co-delivery chemotherapy.•Liposomal-based combination chemotherapy strategies include.•Different liposomal-based combination chemotherapy strategies are discussed.•In vitro, in vivo and clinical researches of liposomal co-drug delivery systems in cancer treatment are reviewed.•Liposomal drug delivery Challenges are mentioned.

Combination therapy and nanotechnology offer a promising therapeutic method in cancer treatment. By improving drug's pharmacokinetics, nanoparticulate systems increase the drug's therapeutic effects while decreasing its adverse side effects related to high dosage. Liposomes are extensively used as drug delivery systems and several liposomal nanomedicines have been approved for clinical applications. In this regard, liposome-based combination chemotherapy (LCC) opens a novel avenue in drug delivery research and has increasingly become a significant approach in clinical cancer treatment. This review paper focuses on LCC strategies including co-delivery of: two chemotherapeutic drugs, chemotherapeutic agent with anti-cancer metals, and chemotherapeutic agent with gene agents and ligand-targeted liposome for co-delivery of chemotherapeutic agents. Definitely, the multidisciplinary method may help improve the efficacy of cancer therapy. An extensive literature review was performed mainly using PubMed.

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