Micro and Nanostructured Drug Release Systems for Skin Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Skin cancer is the most common type of malignancy world wide. The use of topical medications is considered the safest and most effective route of administration for cutaneous diseases. However, in skin cancer, the available drug options have poor skin permeation and retention, resulting in a high incidence of side effects and disease recurrence after treatment interruption. Therefore, topical treatment for premalignant and malignant skin lesions is just recommended when surgical excision is not possible. In this matter, nanocarrier systems are to promote targetable delivery of drugs, enhancing the efficiency and reducing side effects, showing great potential for skin cancer application. This chapter describes the main types of skin cancer and the commercially available topical treatment options. Then, nanocarrier-based delivery systems are pointed out, indicating the main uses and applications in topical cancer treatment. For instance, lipid-based vesicles, such as solid lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, and ultra-deformable liposomes, have a great affinity to skin tissue, being applied to enhance skin permeation and retention of drugs. Polymeric, carbon-based and metal-based nanoparticles have been used for delivering high amounts of drugs with diverse polarity and size, being able to modulate drug release. Finally, immuno stimulating complexes (ISCOMs) are antigen carrying molecules which can provide specific drug delivery. Although many researches show promising improvement in skin cancer treatment, most studies are in preclinical stages.