Delivery Systems of Anticancer Agents

Dear Colleagues,

Developments in drug delivery approaches have led to significant improvements in drugs’ pharmacological efficacies. These developments have been particularly important for anticancer drugs, which are characterized by narrow therapeutic windows. These narrow windows are chiefly the result from the drugs’ high systemic toxicities.

The main objective of drug delivery system development is to promote the therapeutic effects of drugs. This is done by increasing a drug’s bioavailability, preventing side-effects, reducing degradation and loss of the drug, and (especially when the delivery system is targeted) reaching high concentrations in selected areas of the body. Equally important, developing more efficacious drug delivery methods may be cheaper than developing a new drug. Therefore, the development of efficient drug delivery systems remains an important challenge in medicine. Thus, several drug delivery and drug targeting systems are currently being developed for many classes of antitumoral agents.

An important class of anticancer agents is the antitubulins. Tubulins are able to alter mitosis; this leads to cellular death. Among this class, the taxanes (mainly paclitaxel and docetaxel) are widely employed in clinical treatments. Owing to their significant activity against a variety of tumors, taxanes have received considerable attention. Nevertheless, many different approaches have been developed to improve their safety profile and water solubility, in terms of both dosing schedules and delivery strategies. Nanoparticle-albumin bound paclitaxel represents an excellent example of the potency of innovative taxane-containing delivery systems. Indeed, several other approaches are also in development.

This Special Issue of Molecules, entitled “Delivery Systems of Anticancer Agents,” is dedicated to novel or optimized methods, materials, and approaches that are able to efficiently deliver taxanes moving from the bench to the clinic. Targeted delivery systems are also welcome. I encourage authors to submit research papers and comprehensive reviews for this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Franco Dosio
Guest Editor

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