Bladder cancer is the ninth most common malignancy in the world featuring
very high gender variability in occurrence. Current options for bladder cancer therapy
include surgery, immunotherapy and radiotherapy with a trend towards multimodal
treatments. However, successful management remains a challenge for urologists and
oncologists because of the high risk for recurrence and progression. Particularly in the
field of bladder cancer chemotherapy, efficacy of treatment might be improved by
advanced drug delivery strategies aimed at prolonged residence time within the bladder
cavity and increased permeability of the bladder-wall during intravesical instillation.
Thus, encapsulation of the drug in various nanosystems, photodynamic therapy,
mucoadhesion and targeted durgs are several strategies used in the treatment of bladder
cancer. Moreover, a deeper understanding of the biology of bladder carcinogenesis and
malignant progression stimulated the development of a new generation of anticancer
drugs for targeted therapies that might result in increased specificity together with lower
toxic potential and higher therapeutic indices. In addition, this chapter discusses the
available strategies for “targeted therapies”, focusing on molecular targets and the role
of polymeric nanoparticles in the development of targeted therapy of bladder cancer.
Keywords: Nanomedicines, nanoscale vesicles, gelatin nanoparticles, intravesical
drug carriers, targeted therapy, nanocarriers, targeted photodynamic therapy,
nanospheres.