Potential Approaches for Delivery of Surface Decorated Nano-carriers in the Management of Carcinoma

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, affecting the entire world irrespective of demographic and economic variations. In the last few decades, development concerning cancer diagnosis and treatment has witnessed significant advancement but still lags far behind in terms of targeted delivery to the targeted site without much adverse effect. Changes in the structure and pathophysiology of cancer tissue, like leaky vasculature, pH, temperature, over-expression of certain receptors, etc., are being utilized for the development of different approaches of targeted drug delivery to such tissues avoiding the adverse effects associated with cancer chemotherapy. The utilization of enhanced permeability retention (EPR) and surface modification of the nano-sized formulation with different ligands, such as proteins, aptamers, antibodies, etc., are some common ways used for the above. The current chapter includes the different nano-carriers used for targeted drug delivery of medicaments to the affected site along with their surface modification which has shown their significance in the management of cancer.

Keywords: Cancer management, Ligands, Nano-carriers, Surface modification.