The delivery of cancer chemotherapeutics has shifted dramatically in the last
two decades from parenteral to oral administration. Improved patient compliance, drug
tolerability, ease of administration, and potential effectiveness for oral therapy relative
to intravenous administration have appeared as the main reasons to use cancer
chemotherapeutics through the oral route of administration. However, most of the
cancer chemotherapeutics show very poor oral absorption due to the drug’s
physicochemical characteristics, stability, and biological barrier (multidrug efflux
proteins: P-glycoproteins) present in the GI tract. With advanced research in
homolipids and heterolipids as excipients, lipid-based formulations were exploited to
enhance the oral efficacy of poorly absorbable cancer chemotherapeutics in recent
years. Self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (SNEDDS) is the highly developed
strategy of emulsion dependent drug delivery systems and relies on the GI fluids for the
formation of nanoemulsion inside the in vivo system. The advancement in the field of
biocompatible lipid and their derivatives in addition to finding on pharmaceutical
excipients such as oil, surfactants, co-surfactants having P-gp modulating potential
further extend the interest in SNEDDS for delivery of cancer chemotherapeutics
through oral administration. This chapter provides a comprehensive discussion about
contemporary advancement in the application of SNEDDS for oral delivery of cancer
chemotherapeutics.
Keywords: Cancer Chemotherapeutics, Nanoemulsion, Oral Absorption, PGlycoproteins,
SNEDDS.
