Nanotechnology meets 3D in vitro models: tissue engineered tumors and cancer therapies

Advances in nanotechnology are providing to medicine a new dimension. Multifunctional nanomaterials with diagnostics and treatment modalities integrated in one nanoparticle or in cooperative nanosystems are promoting new insights to cancer treatment and diagnosis. The recent convergence between tissue engineering and cancer is gradually moving towards the development of 3D disease models that more closely resemble in vivo characteristics of tumors. However, the current nanomaterials based therapies are accomplished mainly in 2D cell cultures or in complex in vivo models. The development of new platforms to evaluate nano-based therapies in parallel with possible toxic effects will allow the design of nanomaterials for biomedical applications prior to in vivo studies. Therefore, this review focuses on how 3D in vitro models can be applied to study tumor biology, nanotoxicology and to evaluate nanomaterial based therapies.