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Updated: Jan 31, 2026

A Comprehensive Procedure to Evaluate the In Vivo Performance of Cancer Nanomedicines
Published on: March 4, 2017
Recent Development of pH-Responsive Polymers for Cancer Nanomedicine
Houliang Tang1, Weilong Zhao2, Jinming Yu3
1Department of Chemistry, Southern Methodist University, 3215 Daniel Avenue, Dallas, TX 75275, USA. houliangt@smu.edu.
Abstract:
Cancer remains a leading cause of death worldwide with more than 10 million new cases every year. Tumor-targeted nanomedicines have shown substantial improvements of the therapeutic index of anticancer agents, addressing the deficiencies of conventional chemotherapy, and have had a tremendous growth over past several decades. Due to the pathophysiological characteristics that almost all tumor tissues have lower pH in comparison to normal healthy tissues, among various tumor-targeted nanomaterials, pH-responsive polymeric materials have been one of the most prevalent approaches for cancer diagnosis and treatment. In this review, we summarized the types of pH-responsive polymers, describing their chemical structures and pH-response mechanisms; we illustrated the structure-property relationships of pH-responsive polymers and introduced the approaches to regulating their pH-responsive behaviors; we also highlighted the most representative applications of pH-responsive polymers in cancer imaging and therapy. This review article aims to provide general guidelines for the rational design of more effective pH-responsive nanomaterials for cancer diagnosis and treatment.
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