Title:Multifunctional Anti-Cancer Nano-Platforms are Moving to Clinical Trials
Volume: 14
Issue: 5
Author(s): Claudio Esposito, Annalisa Crema, Antonio Ponzetto, Giovanni Murtas and Guido Carloni
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Nano-vectors, cancer targeting, drug delivery, diagnosis, therapy.
Abstract: Cancer management needs rapid, non-invasive diagnosis and tumour-specific therapeutics which is unfortunately lacking for
most cancer types. Novel approaches for cancer management aim at providing customized therapy according to individual diagnoses, determined
by gene expression profiling, in particular, targeting highly selective monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to single cancer cell antigens,
in combination with highly cytotoxic drugs, thereby avoiding the unwanted side effects of conventional chemotherapy. Multifunctional
nano-vectors that combine new and more powerful drugs and/or probes for diagnostic imaging with tumour surface-specific
ligands/antibodies have been developed. These nano-vectors have displayed superior selective anti-tumour activity compared to antibodies
or standard anti-cancer drugs/agents alone both in-vitro, and in preclinical and clinical models. Anti-cancer nano-platforms can significantly
improve early cancer detection and ameliorate therapeutic strategies. In the immediate future nano-technology may enable the
simultaneous early detection and selective inactivation of cancer cells before they develop into full blown tumours.
