Targeted Drug Delivery for Cancer Therapy Using Functionalized Nanocarrier

Nanocarrier-based cancer therapies have been studied for several decades, and some nanomedicines have already been approved for clinical practice. These therapies are based on passive accumulation in tumor tissues via enhanced permeability of tumor vasculature, namely the enhanced permeability and retention effect (EPR effect). However, the efficacy of EPR-based drug delivery is controversial because liposomal doxorubicin potentially has an insufficient therapeutic effect in clinical settings. Therefore, a novel strategy apart from the EPR effect that ensures targeted delivery to tumor tissues has been intensively sought. To ensure cancer therapy success, it is important to regulate the pharmacodynamics of therapeutic agents and selectively deliver them to target regions during an intended period. Functionalized nanocarriers have also been studied for this purpose. In this chapter, we introduce a functionalized nanocarrier-based cancer therapy, focusing on ligand-mediated and triggered release strategies.