Targeted Drug Delivery for Breast Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Breast cancer is the commonest type of malignant tumor in women, comprising of about 30% of all cancers in women worldwide. In the past decades, the mortality of breast cancer patients has significantly been reduced due to the adoption of periodic breast cancer screening and the emergence of various treatments, such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery. Currently, chemotherapy is one of the most effective treatments for breast cancer. Its side effects, however, pose a long-term challenge on a patient's health. Thus, it is highly desirable to develop new therapies that can specifically target carcinoma cells without damaging normal and healthy cells. Tremendous efforts have been made to develop targeted drug delivery systems for breast cancer treatment. In this review, we intend to systematically examine recent progresses made along these directions. We highlighted various delivery carriers designed for directing the diffusion of therapeutic agents inside tumors to kill or suppress breast cancer cells. These carriers include molecular-recognition-element modified anticancer agents, stem cells that have tropism to breast cancers, nanoparticle-based anticancer drugs, and anticancer peptides. In particular, we discussed recent patents on the new targeted therapeutic delivery systems, with an emphasis on triple-negative breast cancer therapies.

LncRNA MALAT1 promotes breast cancer progression and doxorubicin resistance via regulating miR-570–3p

“…However, chemoresistance is the most important factor limiting the clinical application of doxorubicin [ 3 ]. It remains important to understand the mechanism of tumorigenesis and progression of BC so as to provide new targets for improving the prognosis of the patients [ 4 ].…”

Anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, and anti-breast cancer properties unraveled in yeast carotenoids produced via cost-effective fermentation technique utilizing waste hydrolysate

“…The major chemotherapeutic drugs used nowadays to suppress breast cancer cells are developed for targeted delivery of chemo-agents against several molecular and cellular signaling pathway proteins, mainly, for example, ER, PR, HER2, VEGFR1, VEGFR2, and EGFR ( Sarkar and Mandal, 2009 ; Jin and Ye, 2013 ). We conducted in silico molecular docking to evaluate whether the active compounds of the extracts, i.e., β-carotene, torulene, and torularhodin can bind or interact with the breast cancer-specific major molecular targets.…”

XIAOPI Formula Inhibits Breast Cancer Stem Cells via Suppressing Tumor-Associated Macrophages/C-X-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 1 Pathway

“…For many decades, extensive efforts have been made to identify and develop novel targets or treatment strategies for breast cancer. Although a number of cytotoxic drugs or cytostatic drugs have been developed for breast cancer treatment, such as anthraquinones, alkylating agents, alkaloids, and antimetabolites, their therapeutic effects are disappointing due to the inter- and intra-tumor heterogeneity (Jin and Ye, 2013; Yuan et al, 2016). Lately, the traditional strategy has given way to the understanding of the tumor microenvironment, thus enabling modification of the immunological dynamics between tumor cells and their host (Kjeldsen et al, 2018).…”