RECENT INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO ENHANCE THE EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF ANTICANCER DRUGS: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW

Developing innovative delivery strategies remains an ongoing task to improve bothefficacy and safety of drug-based therapy. Anti-cancer drug treatment is seriously affected by various undesirable properties such as poor solubility, narrow therapeutic index and efflux transporter specificity. One of the primary aspects of a successful cancer treatment regimen is to deliver sufficient amounts of drug to tumors while minimizing damage to normal tissues. In this review we highlight the development of promising recent innovative approaches that will hopefully offer not only gains in efficacy, but also in safety, tolerability and convenience in the treatment of patients with cancer. Drug delivery remains a challenge in management of cancer. Approximately 12.5 million new cases of cancer are being diagnosed worldwide each year and considerable research is in progress for drug discovery for cancer. Cancer drug delivery is no longer simply wrapping up cancer drugs in a new formulation for different routes of delivery. The focus is on targeted cancer therapy. The newer approaches to cancer treatment not only supplement the conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy but also prevent damage to normal tissues and prevent drug resistance. Innovative cancer therapies are based on current concepts of molecular biology of cancer. These include antiangiogenic agents, immunotherapy, bacterial agents, viral oncolysis, targeting of cyclic-dependent kinases and tyrosine kinase receptors, antisense approaches, gene therapy and combination of various methods. Important methods of immunotherapy in cancer involve use of cytokines, monoclonal antibodies, cancer vaccines and immunogene therapy