Chapter 4 - Exploring potential of polymers in cancer management

Abstract

Looking at the demand for higher life expectancy of human bodies, extensive research has been carried out in the field of medicine and biology in order to expand the life span, fight diseases, and improve health efficiency. Cancer needs to be treated with personalised medicine, due to the wide ranges of efficacy between patients with the same type of cancer. Understanding these molecular differences is critical to characterizing disease states, particularly in cancers associated with specific biomarkers. Treatment of cancer is related not only to the therapy applied, but also to early diagnosis. Detection and isolation of multiple tumor markers or tumor cells from complex samples with high sensitivity and efficiency is necessary for the early diagnosis of tumors. For this type of application, polymers are the most versatile materials and have been proven to be an attractive choice. This is because polymers are easy to fabricate even at low-processing temperatures compared to metal or ceramic matrices. Owing to their versatile nature, they can be reinforced with organic or inorganic particles and fibers to yield composite materials. Polymers can be covalently attached to nanomaterials for enhanced biocompatibility and endocytosis, resulting in the formation of smart nanostructures. The latter have been developed as drug delivery systems as well as carriers for various contrasting agents in diagnostic imaging applications. Polymers like chitosan and dendrimers have been extensively used for potential applications like DNA transfection, gene delivery, and tumor targeting. Dendrimers are hyperbranched, nanosized macromolecules with well-defined structures. They possess numerous surface-active functional groups, which makes them suitable for functionalization with high ligand density for specific targeting. This chapter discusses role of polymers in various aspects of cancer ranging from diagnosis to treatment. The properties, structural modifications, biomedical applications, and future challenges for composites and nanostructures based on organic polymer materials are discussed in detail.