Current advances in drug delivery systems for treatment of Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC)

Abstract

Triple negative breast cancer is known to be the most malignant and aggressive form of breast cancer accompanied with poor prognosis in patients. It is characterized by the absence of expression of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, making the TNBC cells unresponsive to hormonal therapy. Owing to its molecular heterogeneity and complexity, there are no currently available targeted treatments for TNBC. With only cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs as an established treatment option for TNBC, tumor-targeted delivery of drugs becomes an important parameter to prevent or attenuate chemotherapy-associated side effects and toxicity in TNBC patients. Thus efficient and tumor-targeting drug delivery systems are critically needed for effective treatment of TNBC. This concise review summarizes the most recent findings in the field of cancer-related drug delivery systems, focusing on the treatment of triple negative breast cancer and highlights the future directions and research perspectives in this area.