Materials Science World Congress

Nanomaterials have come to be regarded as a revolutionary tool in targeted therapy of cancer in systemic chemotherapy. This new delivery approach enhances the precision in the delivery of the treatment directly to the cancer cell, involving lesser damage to healthy tissues. These materials vary between 1 and 100 nanometers in size and possess certain physicochemical properties that enable interaction at the molecular level, leading to effective and controlled drug delivery into biological systems.

With nanomaterial use in cancer treatment, one of the significant benefits is that nanomaterials can home specifically on tumor tissue. In other words, unlike traditional chemotherapy, nanomaterials can target cancer cells. This means that nanomaterial-based treatments present limited side effects typical of anti-cancer drugs. With ligands or antibodies that could bind a specific marker on cancer cells, nanoparticles can be coated to guide the delivery of therapeutic agents precisely where they are needed.

L liposomes, dendrimers, quantum dots, and gold and silver metallic nanoparticles are some of the nanomaterials that have been used in cancer therapy. Using these nanomaterials is able to carry drugs, genes, or other therapeutic agents across the cell membrane into cancer cells, providing multiple routes against the development of cancer, including direct cytotoxic effects on the cancer cells, modulation of the immune system, and disruptive interference to the proliferation capability of the cancer cell.

Another critical feature of nanomaterials is that they bypass biological barriers that normally limit efficacy with conventional treatments. Nanoparticles can be designed to evade detection by the immune system, and thus be allowed to remain in circulation longer, and to have a deeper penetrative capacity inside tumor tissues. This is especially relevant in the treatment of poorly accessible or otherwise-resistant tumors.

Continued in this direction, present-day research is focused on the evolving novel applications of nanomaterials in cancer treatment, which is also used as a combination therapy; here, nanomaterials are used in combination with traditional drugs. Therefore, they enhance the overall effect of treatment. Besides these applications, the ingenuity of nanotechnology is opening avenues for the development of ""smart"" nanomaterials. Here, the nanomaterials are designed to release therapeutic agents in response to certain stimuli in the tumor microenvironment.

In a word, nanomaterials open huge opportunities for a new revolution in targeted cancer therapy related to the efficiency, safety, and personalization of treatment outcomes by patients, the fight against cancer.