BACKGROUND: Delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer is becoming advanced day by day. However, the challenge of the effective delivery system still does exist. In various types of cancers, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women. Breast cancer is a combination of different diseases. It cannot be considered as only one entity because there are many specific patient factors, which are involved in the development of this disease. Nanotechnology has opened a new area in the effective treatment of breast cancer due to the several benefits offered by this technology.
METHODS: Polymeric nanocarriers are among one of the effective delivery systems, which has given promising results in the treatment of breast cancers. Nanocarriers does exert their anticancer effect either through active or passive targeting mode.
RESULTS: The use of nanocarriers has been resolute about the adverse effects of chemotherapeutic drugs such as poor solubility and less penetrability in tumor cells.
CONCLUSION: The present review is focused on recent developments regarding polymeric nanocarriers, such as polymeric micelles, polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, liposomes, nanoshells, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes (CNT) and quantum dots, etc. for their recent advancements in breast cancer therapy.
* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.