%0 Journal Article
%T Targeted, Monitored, and Controlled Chemotherapy: A Multimodal Nanotechnology-Based Approach against Cancer
%A Ali Shakeri-Zadeh
%A Samideh Khoei
%A Sepideh Khoee
%A Ali Mohammad Sharifi
%A Mohammad-Bagher Shiran
%J ISRN Nanotechnology
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/629510
%X We review innovative methods for treatment of cancer tumor on the basis of nanotechnology and physics to target, monitor and control release of chemotherapeutic agents. Chemotherapy is one of the main methods of treatment for cancer and plays a vital role in clinical practice, but side effects of anticancer drugs are still critical problems. Magnetic nanoparticles can be applied as an effective drug carriers and contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Since certain nanoparticles have magnetic properties, they can be trapped in tumor during blood circulation by an external magnetic field. Also, polymeric nanoparticles are great candidates to encapsulate anticancer drugs and to control the release profile of drugs in biologic media. We suggest the construction of drug-loaded polymer-coated magnetic (DPM) nanoplatform with the potential for being utilized in medical imaging as well as having controlled drug release properties. Nanoplatform distribution can be monitored by MRI and with clever combination of ultrasound physics and suggested DPM nanoplatform, it would be feasible to increase the rate of drug release (in situ) and drug uptake by cancerous cell. To optimize the level of drug uptake by cancerous cell, the selection of ultrasound frequency and intensity is essential. The development of suggested method could be a new approach against cancer tumor. 1. Introduction 1.1. Cancer Cancer is a disease of the cell in which the normal mechanisms of cell growth and proliferation are disturbed. Among all treatments for cancer (surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy), chemotherapy plays an important role in clinical practice, but the drugsĄ¯ side effects are the main problems [1, 2]. Anticancer agents are not specific to just targeting cancer cells and always lead to systemic toxicity. As a result, these drugs cause undesirable and severe side effects such as hair loss, renal and hepatic damages, and bone marrow [3]. Therefore, one of the major disadvantages of the chemotherapy is the destruction of cancer cells as well as normal cells of the body. This difficulty would be minimized if we concentrate the drug in the tumor region which in turn leads to the increase of antitumor efficacy with applying a locally higher but systemically lower dose. Also from economical point of view, administrating a lower dose drugs systematically can be taken into consideration. Accordingly, an exciting potential solution for this problem is to encapsulate the drug in biocompatible and biodegradable materials that can be injected into the blood stream with the
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.nanotechnology/2013/629510/