Nanocarriers for the targeted treatment of ovarian cancers

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecological malignancies worldwide. Although the majority of tumors initially respond to standard treatments combining surgery and chemotherapy with platinum based chemotherapy, frequent recurrence and subsequent acquired chemoresistance are responsible for the therapeutic failure, leading to an overall 5 years survival rate of 30%. Considering the usual initial sensitivity of the ovarian tumors to chemotherapy, over the past decade efforts have been focused over the past decade to cure ovarian cancer using the currently available chemotherapeutic agents in various combinations, dosages, schedules (durations and/or routes of administration). However, with such a systemic chemotherapeutic approach, considerable limitations exist including toxicities to healthy tissues and low achievable drug concentrations at tumor sites. Considerable efforts are implemented to engineer systems capable of ferrying large doses of cytotoxic agents specifically into targeted malignant cells while sparing healthy cells. The purpose of the present review is to index the main targeted colloidal systems used for drug delivery to ovarian tumors. These nanocarriers will be analyzed by citing examples of their use in preclinical development.