Nanomedicine for the Treatment of Advanced Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Current prostate cancer (PCa) treatment options include hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiotherapy; however, a lack of targeting and overall efficiency has failed to improve survival rates or reduce unwanted side‐effects in advanced stage PCa patients. The modification of existing therapeutics, including their reformulation as nanomedicines, can increase stability in plasma, enhance tumor targeting, and improve pharmacokinetics to foster improvements in patient outcomes. This review now describes those nanomedicinal approaches to advanced PCa treatment under evaluation in both preclinical and clinical studies. Despite the current advantages provided by nanomedicine in PCa treatment, there exists the opportunity to improve the design of novel therapeutic approaches. Therefore, this review also highlights the importance of identifying novel functional biomarkers to stratify patients and guide nanomedicinal design. Finally, the authors describe strategies employed to enhance the passive accumulation of nanomedicines in tumors and discuss the enormous potential of combination therapies that target tumor cells and the all‐important tumor microenvironment to reduce tumor growth and overcome therapeutic resistance.

Progressing nanotechnology to improve targeted cancer treatment: overcoming hurdles in its clinical implementation

“…19-A). One prominent approach is immunotherapy, which aims to activate the patient's immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells within the TME [190]. Checkpoint inhibitors, such as PD-1 and CTLA-4 inhibitors, have shown remarkable success in this regard [241].…”

“…Angiogenesis inhibitors, like anti-VEGF drugs, are employed to hinder the formation of new blood vessels within the tumor. Furthermore, the development of targeted therapies that disrupt specific signaling pathways crucial for TME maintenance, such as the PI3K/ AKT/mTOR pathway, holds promise in altering the TME to make it less hospitable to cancer cells [190]. Collectively, these mechanisms offer a multifaceted approach to target the TME and improve the efficacy of cancer treatment, potentially leading to more effective and personalized therapeutic strategies [267].…”

“…Cytotoxic medicines are attached to mAbs [49,50]. Patients with breast cancer and an overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 are often administered the monoclonal antibody Herceptin (or trastuzumab) (HER2) [190]. The use of trastuzumab (Tmab) in the ADC system has been studied, and the findings imply increased therapy efficacy compared to utilizing Tmab alone [49,50].…”

Three-in-one: exploration of co-encapsulation of cabazitaxel, bicalutamide and chlorin e6 in new mixed cyclodextrin-crosslinked polymers

“…Administration of multiple therapeutic agents remains challenging, however, in this context nanotechnology applied to drug delivery can offer a series of advantages such as the possibility to combine in a unique carrier system more than one therapeutic agent and to increase the bioavailability of the single components. [7][8][9][10] Furthermore, it has been reported that several nanocarriers can afford implementation of classical chemotherapy with other types of treatment like photodynamic therapy (PDT). [11][12][13][14][15] Combination therapy aims at the synergic action of different therapeutics targeting more than one metabolic pathway in order to maximize the impact of the treatment and eventually improve the therapeutic outcome.…”

In Vivo Antitumor and Antimetastatic Efficacy of a Polyacetal‐Based Paclitaxel Conjugate for Prostate Cancer Therapy

“…[6] Nanomedicines have emerged as exciting new therapeutic modalities for unmet clinical needs, and in this study, we focused on the potential of polymer therapeutics, particularly polymer-drug conjugates (PDCs), for the treatment of advanced metastatic PCa. [7] PDCs are defined as macromolecular complexes in which a drug is covalently bound to a water-soluble polymeric carrier. [8] Compared to conventional small moleculebased therapies, PDCs have several advantages for cancer therapy, including i) enhanced aqueous solubility, ii) higher drug loading capacity, iii) prolonged blood circulation times and, therefore, improved bioavailability and biodistribution via the so-called enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, [9] and consequently, iv) reduced toxicity for healthy tissues and v) increased anti-tumor efficacy.…”