Advances in Liposome-Based Targeted Drug Delivery for Breast Cancer Therapy

Breast cancer is a prevalent form of cancer in women globally and is a significant public health problem. The use of conventional chemotherapy to treat breast cancer is common, but can have some dire side effects, lack drug selectivity, cause multidrug resistance and cause damage to healthy cells. Nanotechnology drug delivery systems are now emerging as the possible solutions of these challenges. Liposomes have attracted much interest among these due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability and their capacity to deliver hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs. Additionally, targeted liposomal drugs may be targeted with various ligands, antibodies, peptides or other targeting molecules to enhance the interaction of the drugs with breast cancer cells. Liposomal formulations of clinically proven drugs such as pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) have proven to have important applications in cancer therapy. Liposome based drug delivery systems offer the potential to enhance the therapeutic index of anti-cancer agents, either by increasing the drug concentration in tumor cells and/or by decreasing the exposure in normal tissues exploiting enhanced permeability and retention effect phenomenon and by utilizing targeting strategies.