Polymeric microneedles for enhanced drug delivery in cancer therapy

Abstract

Microneedles (MNs) have attracted the interest of researchers. Polymeric MNs offer tremendous promise as drug delivery vehicles for bio-applications because of their high loading capacity, strong patient adherence, excellent biodegradability and biocompatibility, low toxicity, and extremely cheap cost. Incorporating enhanced-property nanomaterials into polymeric MNs matrix increases their features such as better mechanical strength, sustained drug delivery, lower toxicity, and higher therapeutic effects, therefore considerably increasing their biomedical application. This paper discusses polymeric MN fabrication techniques and the present status of polymeric MNs as a delivery method for enhanced drug delivery in cancer therapeutic applications. Furthermore, the opportunities and challenges of polymeric MNs for improved drug delivery in cancer therapy are highlighted.

Keywords: Cancer therapy; Chemotherapy; Gene therapy; Immunotherapy; Phototherapy; Polymeric microneedle.