Title:The Emerging Landscapes to Drug Delivery Systems for the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer
Volume: 28
Issue: 26
Author(s): Agnes Magri*, Franciele Garcia Baveloni, Bruna Almeida Furquim de Camargo and Marlus Chorilli*
Affiliation:
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Rodovia Araraquara-Jau/ Km 01, Campos Ville, 14800-903 – Araraquara, SP,Brazil
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Rodovia Araraquara-Jau/ Km 01, Campos Ville, 14800-903 – Araraquara, SP,Brazil
Keywords:
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, drug delivery, nanotechnology, nanoparticles, stroma, solid tumor.
Abstract: Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDA) is a highly metastatic tumor, and
the liver is its first target, which restricts the use of medications. PDA is considered one
of the most aggressive types of cancer in the world, with an extremely short survival
time, depending on the stage of diagnosis. In non-surgical cases, chemotherapy alternatives
are only effective in 40% to 60% of patients. The low efficiency of treatments occurs
mainly due to the complex microenvironment in PDA, leading to chemoresistance
to treatments and making it difficult to reach the affected tissue. A very important histological
characteristic of PDA is the extremely dense stroma, which leads to low vascularization
of tumor tissue. Consequently, the stroma environment causes less drug accumulation
in tumor cells, even of selective and/or targeted drugs. Overcoming the stroma's
microenvironment is a major challenge for therapies. Moreover, specific genes lead to direct
chemoresistance in PDA due to their high progression. In this scenario, nanotechnology
appears as an alternative to overcome these clinical challenges concerning two distinct
ways: acting on the stroma or/and acting directly on the pancreatic tumor cells. Thus,
this review aimed to highlight advances in the application of nanotechnology aiming to
open up new landscapes against PDA. There are a huge number of nanoparticles carrying
drugs in preclinical and clinical trials for the effective treatment of PDA. These works
have been discussed, and based on the current scenario, the future prospects for an efficient
treatment of PDA have been proposed.
