Drug delivery systems for colorectal cancer chemotherapy

Colorectal cancer causes the third most common type of malignant tumors with high morbidity and mor-tality. Chemotherapy is currently one of the most effective and common treatments for colorectal cancer. However, the poor water solubility of some chemotherapeutics, untargeted drug delivery, and the un-desirable systemic side effects of conventional treatment remain the major issues for colorectal cancer chemotherapy. Fortunately, drug delivery systems (DDS) based on biomaterials have been widely investi-gated and found to be capable of resolving those issues with good performance. Therefore, the main goal of this review is to summarize and discuss the progress and potential advantages of different DDS for colorectal cancer chemotherapy. We not only reviewed the nanocarriers used to improve the solubility of chemotherapeutics, including liposomes, micelles, and nanoparticles, but also discussed targeted DDS based on specific ligand-receptor recognition and tumor microenvironmental stimulus responses. Further-more, locally administered systems based on hydrogels and microspheres, which have been shown to increase drug accumulation at the tumor site while decreasing systemic toxicity, were also emphasized. DDS provides a good option for improving the efficacy of chemotherapy in the treatment of colorectal cancer.(c) 2023 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.