Nanoparticle Drug Delivery Systems: The Future Direction for the Treatment of Tumors

An increasing number of people worldwide are dying from cancer, with metastasis being the main cause of cancer-related deaths, but most of the drugs used to treat these patients have systemic toxicity. Fortunately, with the development and application of nanodrug delivery systems, a large amount of research has been conducted on inorganic nanocarriers represented by metal nanocarriers, as well as organic nanocarriers represented by liposomal nanoparticles and polymeric micelles, as delivery systems for antitumor substances. These nanocarriers can not only increase the solubility and stability of hydrophobic drugs and prolong their circulation time in the blood, but also enable the loaded drugs to have tumor-targeting properties. These characteristics make nanodrug delivery systems synergistically enhance efficacy and reduce toxicity in cancer treatment. In this review, we will introduce the composition of nanoparticle drug delivery system carriers, their advantages in cancer treatment, and focus on the targeting capabilities of nanoparticle drug delivery systems, as well as briefly introduce clinically approved nanodrugs. This provides a theoretical basis and direction for the continuous improvement of drug-loaded nanosystems and the acceleration of clinical translation.