Hydrogels as promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of skin cancer

Abstract

Skin cancer, such as melanoma and non-melanoma, is the most common malignancy in white populations. The local therapy strategy plays an important role in skin cancer treatment, and hydrogels can act as perfect platforms. Recently, hydrogels have been investigated in medicine and pharmacy due to their desirable biocompatibility and physicochemical properties, including softness, high water content, and flexibility. Hydrogels can be formed from synthetic, semi-, and natural polymers chemically or physically cross-linked. Their resemblance to living tissue can find enormous biomedical applications. The principal problem with common melanoma chemotherapy is the strong side effects, because neoplastic factors do not recognize cancer cells from healthy cells. For example, some of the side effects of treating melanoma cancer with chemotherapy and immunotherapy include nausea, vomiting, kidney toxicity, fatigue, cellular depression, abdominal pain, dermatitis, hepatitis, and infection. The side effects of conventional therapies encourage the search for novel therapies for cancer cells. Recently, hydrogel has been applied for tissue engineering scaffolds, wound dressings, and drug delivery systems. These percutaneous drug delivery systems are emerging as a promising alternative strategy for carrying anti-neoplastic agents to prevent side effects. The purpose of this study is to describe some of the latest developments (2019–2021) in the use of hydrogels for the treatment of skin cancer.