Nanoformulations for Targeted Drug Delivery to Prostate Cancer: An Overview

Abstract

Cancer is the second leading causes of death worldwide and it is one of the fatal diseases that kill millions of people every year. It is characterized by uncontrolled proliferation of cells and loss of apoptosis that generates an abnormal mass of cells or tumors. Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common cancers in men and the risk is higher over the age of 55-65. Currently, PCa is the second most common cancer, which causes death in men has a high prevalence with relatively lower cancer mortality risk compared to lung and colon cancer. Management of cancer remains an ongoing challenge in oncology as it is a pathophysiological and heterogeneous disease. The current treatment options such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy available for cancer therapies are inadequate due to the heterogeneity characteristics of cancer and spur demand for improved technologies. Nanotechnology is an emerging and potential platform that uses nanoparticles for the disease diagnosis to targeted drug delivery system (DDS). One of the most important active research fields of nanotechnology is nanomedicine, which provides solutions to the difficulties of conventional chemotherapy. Nanoformulation based drug delivery enhances the properties to improve the pharmacokinetics profile, bioavailability and these drug carriers increases the therapeutic efficiency compared to the regular chemotherapeutic drugs. Moreover, nanoformulated drugs help to overcome the lack of selectivity and adverse side effects of conventional chemotherapy. This review provides an overview of PCa drug delivery systems. A special emphasis is given to research work around the world in the development of nanoformulations for targeted drug delivery to PCa.