Biomaterials for Cancer Therapies

Cancer is a complex disease of genetic or environmental origin, affecting any tissue in the body, and second only to cardiovascular disease in its frequency. Even though therapeutic efficacy has greatly improved in recent decades, much remains to be achieved and understood to treat cancer. The structural and biological complexity of tumors, their invasiveness, and relapses hinder the development of effective therapies. Owing to their versatile and easily tunable properties, biomaterials hold promise to study and treat neoplasms, therefore potentially contributing to solutions to the societal challenge of cancer.

Materials-based strategies that contribute to fighting cancer are micro- and nanoparticles (e.g., liposomes, dendrimers, and nanotubes), micro- and nanorobots, acting as drug delivery systems in cancer therapy, including, but not limited to, chemo- and combination thermal therapies and imaging. Polymeric and oligomeric material-modified therapeutic agents are also within scope, as are macrostructures serving as drug carriers. In addition, gene editing technologies are expected to avail themselves of nanobiomaterial carriers, such as non-viral vectors. On the other hand, macro-scale implantable biomaterial devices are emerging as highly versatile therapeutic platforms, able to offer multifunctional and creative strategies against tumors, such as delivering polychemotherapy locally, trapping metastases, and acting as immunotherapy. Biomaterials-based scaffolds endorsing the concept of tissue engineering (i.e., cancer tissue engineering) are also exploited to generate and replicate 3D tumor models in vitro, thus enabling a better comprehension of the tumor microenvironment and therapy performance assessment in a personalized and precise manner.