Recent Developments in Nanomedicine for Pediatric Cancer

Cancer is the second biggest cause of death in children in the US. With the development of chemotherapy, there has been a substantial increase in the overall survival rate in the last 30 years. However, the overall mortality rate in children with cancer remains 25%, and many survivors experience a decline in overall quality of life and long-term adverse effects caused by treatments. Although cancer cells share common characteristics, pediatric cancers are different from adult cancers in their prevalence, mutation load, and drug response. Therefore, there is an urgent unmet need to develop therapeutic approaches specifically designed for children with cancer. Nanotechnology can potentially overcome the deficiencies of conventional methods of administering chemotherapy and ultimately improve clinical outcomes. The nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems can decrease the toxicity of therapy, provide a sustained or controlled drug release, improve the pharmacokinetic properties of loading contents, and achieve a targeted drug delivery with achievable modifications. Furthermore, therapeutic approaches based on combining nanoformulated drugs with novel immunotherapeutic agents are emerging. In this review, we discussed the recently developed nanotechnology-based strategies for treating blood and solid pediatric cancers.