Development of Nanocarriers, Including Liposomes, Dendrimers, and Polymeric Nanoparticles, for Targeted Cancer Therapy

Advances in nanomedicine have established nanocarriers as clinically relevent platforms for targeted cancer therapy, offering improved drug accumulation in tumors, controlled release kinetics, and reduced systemic toxicity compared with conventional chemotherapeutics. This chapter provides a structured review of three major nanocarriers, including liposomes, dendrimers, and polymeric nanoparticles, focusing on their physicochemical foundations, design principles, mechanisms of tumor targeting, and translational progress. Liposomes represent the most clinically mature system, with approved formulations such as PEGylated liposomal doxorubicin and irinotecan liposomes demonstrating enhanced pharmacokinetics and attenuated organ-specific toxicity. Dendrimers, characterized by precise, monodisperse branching architectures and multivalent surfaces, offer broad functional adaptability for co-delivery of drugs, genes, and imaging agents, though their clinical translation remains challenged by cationic toxicity and scale-up complexity. Polymeric nanoparticles, including PLGA-, PLA-, and PEG-based systems, enable tunable degradation rates, high drug-loading capacity, and facile incorporation of pH-, redox-, and enzyme-responsive motifs, supporting programmable release and integration into theranostic platforms. Across all nanocarrier systems, selective tumor delivery remains constrained by heterogeneous vascular permeability, elevated interstitial fluid pressure, and variability in the enhanced permeability and retention effect. To overcome these limitations, emerging strategies focus on ligand-directed targeting, tumor microenvironment modulation, multi-stimuli-responsive architectures, and hybrid organic–inorganic designs. Future development is expected to align nanocarrier engineering with precision oncology. By analyzing the principles from materials science, tumor biology, targeting strategies, and drug delivery, this chapter shows advantages and challenges of nanocarriers, highlighting a convergence toward smarter, modular, and personalized nanosystems for next-generation cancer therapeutics.