Statin Nanoformulation Methods in Cancer Theranosis: Trimodal Therapy

Lipid-lowering statin medications with repurposed anticancer properties have tremendous potentials in cancer treatment and management. Several preclinical evidences have indicated statin’s tumor pro-apoptosis and inhibitory functions to arrest angiogenesis, or resistance to metastasis and other critical processes in cancer development. Clinical applications of statin use in oncology suffer from low solubility and bioavailability of statins given with chemodrugs. These challenges are overcome by use of statin–chemodrug nanoformulations as nanomedicines to enhance the statins and chemodrug delivery, solubility, stability, and targeting ability for maximum anticancer therapeutic efficacy with maximum accumulation of nanomedicines in tumors without any side effects. Different statins exert anticancer effects by the specific mechanisms of mevalonate, immune response modulation, and induced apoptosis pathways. The authors propose “trimodal therapy” in the present chapter on development of statin-loaded nanoformulations of liposomes, micelles, and polymeric beads filled with chemo-radiotherapy drugs and with immunotherapy and targeted therapy drugs as hybrid nanomedicines or trimodal therapy, as well as their nanodelivery applications and anticancer properties in tumors to improve cancer treatment and offer better patient outcomes. In conclusion, multiple hybrid nanodrugs, or controlled delivery of statins with other two or more anticancer drugs, enhances the anticancer effects and simultaneously reduces the cardiotoxicity, cytotoxicity, drug resistance, and tumor recurrence to enhance the overall clinical and patient outcomes.