Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Mar 13;24(6):5474.
doi: 10.3390/ijms24065474.

Enhancing Targeted Therapy in Breast Cancer by Ultrasound-Responsive Nanocarriers

Isaiah A Edwards  1 , Flavia De Carlo  2 , Juliana Sitta  1 , William Varner  1 , Candace M Howard  1 , Pier Paolo Claudio  2
Affiliations
Review

Enhancing Targeted Therapy in Breast Cancer by Ultrasound-Responsive Nanocarriers

Isaiah A Edwards et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Currently, the response to cancer treatments is highly variable, and severe side effects and toxicity are experienced by patients receiving high doses of chemotherapy, such as those diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. The main goal of researchers and clinicians is to develop new effective treatments that will be able to specifically target and kill tumor cells by employing the minimum doses of drugs exerting a therapeutic effect. Despite the development of new formulations that overall can increase the drugs' pharmacokinetics, and that are specifically designed to bind overexpressed molecules on cancer cells and achieve active targeting of the tumor, the desired clinical outcome has not been reached yet. In this review, we will discuss the current classification and standard of care for breast cancer, the application of nanomedicine, and ultrasound-responsive biocompatible carriers (micro/nanobubbles, liposomes, micelles, polymeric nanoparticles, and nanodroplets/nanoemulsions) employed in preclinical studies to target and enhance the delivery of drugs and genes to breast cancer.

Keywords: breast cancer; enhanced targeted therapy; ultrasound; ultrasound-sensitive carriers.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Graphical abstract of delivery platforms.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Society A.C. Breast Cancer Facts & Figures in Brief. [(accessed on 5 February 2023)]. Available online: https://www.cancer.org/research/acs-research-highlights/breast-cancer-re....
    1. Nur U., El Reda D., Hashim D., Weiderpass E. A prospective investigation of oral contraceptive use and breast cancer mortality: Findings from the Swedish women’s lifestyle and health cohort. BMC Cancer. 2019;19:807. doi: 10.1186/s12885-019-5985-6. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen S., Parmigiani G. Meta-analysis of BRCA1 and BRCA2 penetrance. J. Clin. Oncol. 2007;25:1329–1333. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2006.09.1066. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kuchenbaecker K.B., Hopper J.L., Barnes D.R., Phillips K.A., Mooij T.M., Roos-Blom M.J., Jervis S., van Leeuwen F.E., Milne R.L., Andrieu N., et al. Risks of Breast, Ovarian, and Contralateral Breast Cancer for BRCA1 and BRCA2 Mutation Carriers. JAMA. 2017;317:2402–2416. doi: 10.1001/jama.2017.7112. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ahmed S., Sami A., Xiang J. HER2-directed therapy: Current treatment options for HER2-positive breast cancer. Breast Cancer. 2015;22:101–116. doi: 10.1007/s12282-015-0587-x. - DOI - PubMed