Int J Med Sci 2015; 12(2):187-200. doi:10.7150/ijms.10083 This issue Cite
Review
Department of Otolaryngology, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, 310003, China
Head-and-neck cancer is a major form of the disease worldwide. Treatment consists of surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, but these have not resulted in improved survival rates over the past few decades. Versatile nanoparticles, with selective tumor targeting, are considered to have the potential to improve these poor outcomes. Application of nanoparticle-based targeted therapeutics has extended into many areas, including gene silencing, chemotherapeutic drug delivery, radiosensitization, photothermal therapy, and has shown much promise. In this review, we discuss recent advances in the field of nanoparticle-mediated targeted therapeutics for head-and-neck cancer, with an emphasis on the description of targeting points, including future perspectives.
Keywords: Nanoparticles, targeted therapeutics, head-and-neck cancer, RNA interference, drug delivery, radiosensitization, photothermal therapy