۱- Introduction

۲- DDS for targeted BC treatment

۳- Conclusion and outlook

References

Abstract

Bladder cancer is a severe disease that threatens human health. The high recurrence rate and severe side-effects of traditional bladder cancer therapy require more efficient and higher targeting treatment. Drug delivery systems especially being endowed with the targeting property may provide a feasible means to solve such problems. Herein, we have reviewed the recent progress of the drug delivery systems aiming at bladder cancer therapy especially focusing on their targeting strategies. Additionally, we give some outlook of the design on targeting strategy for more effective anti-cancer applications.

Introduction

Cancer is a category of disease originating from unregulated cell growth and such abnormal cells are able to spread or invade other parts of our body. It is a major public health problem and becomes the second leading cause of death worldwide. Among them, bladder cancer (BC) tops the list of the estimated new cases and deaths [1]. In Europe, BC is the 5th most common cancer type for both sexes affecting rather men than women [2]. In US, BC ranks the 4th most common caner and the 8th in mortality in men [1]. In principle, BC is a rather heterogeneous disease, resulting in a challenge in classification, staging and grading. Generally, 70% of bladder urothelial cell carcinomas represent a superficial disease called nonmuscle-invasive BC, while the other 30% develop a muscle-invasive disease bearing the risk of metastatic spread of the tumor [3]. The standard scheme for superficial BC treatment is surgical transurethal resection with an 80% early success rate. Unfortunately, among them, 70% of those patients develop tumor recurrence within 5 years after surgical transurethal resection [4]. Therefore, chemotherapy still plays an important role in the prevention of tumor recurrence and progression. Although systemic or intravesical chemotherapy using the first-line chemotherapeutic agents (cisplatin, taxanes, gemcitabine, etc.) enables long-term survival in some patients, the high recurrence rate and severe side-effects still hinder BC therapy. Thus, more efficient and higher targeting treatment is in urgent need to improve the quality of the BC patients’ lives.