Clinical and Structural Highlights for Nanoparticle Formulations of Anticancer Drugs

Safety and efficacy are crucial to achieving clinical authorization to use anticancer drugs. Nevertheless, at the regulatory level, anticancer drugs are permitted to be approved with comparatively reduced safety, using the cost/benefit aspect as criteria for the treatment, affecting oncology patients’ quality of life, who suffer the side effects, and the uncertainty of treatment efficacy. Therefore, it is critical to improve oncological therapies. Reducing toxicity and enhancing the relevant pharmacological properties of anticancer drugs are imperative. However, nanotechnology shows excellent potential for resolving this problem. Regardless, its clinical use poses regulatory challenges that, to be overcome, require guides that allow the design of nanoparticles with a higher safety profile and functionality, such as targeted drug delivery. Fortunately, there are available nanoparticle formulations of anticancer drugs in the market, under clinical stages and preclinical testing, with functional groups and components that decrease their toxicity while optimizing their function. These highlights may potentially improve the design of nanoparticle formulations of anticancer drugs to achieve a more outstanding quality of life for oncological patients under treatment.