Open AccessNanomedicine Strategies to Enhance Tumor Drug Penetration in Pancreatic Cancer
Author(s) -
Tao Lü,
Jai Prakash
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of nanomedicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.245
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1178-2013
pISSN - 1176-9114
DOI - 10.2147/ijn.s279192
Subject(s) - pancreatic cancer , stroma , tumor microenvironment , drug delivery , cancer research , nanomedicine , pancreatic tumor , medicine , extracellular matrix , drug , in vivo , cancer , pathology , pharmacology , biology , tumor cells , materials science , nanotechnology , microbiology and biotechnology , immunohistochemistry , nanoparticle
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most malignant tumors with one of the worst survival rates due to its insidious onset and resistance to therapies. Most therapeutics show a desired anticancer effect in vitro; however, very poor efficacy in vivo because of the limited drug delivery and penetration into pancreatic tumors attributed to the abundance of the tumor stroma, ie, the fibrotic tumor microenvironment surrounding the cancer cells. For a better understanding of the challenges posed by the pancreatic tumor stroma, we outline the key features of the tumor microenvironment. Then we highlight major strategies used to tackle the challenges to improve drug penetration into the tumor and achieve enhanced efficacy (pre)clinically. Furthermore, we describe nanomedicine strategies to modulate the tumor stroma, degrade the extracellular matrix, and co-deliver multi-functional drugs, to improve the chemotherapeutics delivery and penetration into pancreatic tumors.