Nanocomposite hydrogels in skin cancer medicine

Skin cancer is one of the most common malignancies in white populations. The therapy strategy is important in skin cancer treatment, depending on several criteria such as stage, size, and localization. Removal of cancerous tissue following anticancer therapeutic administration is considered as gold standard in skin cancer treatment. However, annually rising drug resistance, local inflammation, and ineffective treatment result in a reduction in the effectiveness of the patient's treatment. Nanotechnology has emerged as a prospective in the field of skin cancer medicine, offering innovative, promising solutions for therapeutic procedures and targeted drug delivery. Different nanomaterials are investigated for their potential in skin cancer treatment. Nanohydrogels as a hybrid material, have gained considerable attention due to their unique biomedical and pharmaceutical properties, such as biocompatibility, high water content, and tunable physicochemical characteristics. The principal problem with common skin melanoma chemotherapy is the strong side effects because therapeutics used for treatment do not distinguish cancer cells from healthy cells. Nanohydrogels, as a new-generation, versatile system with the possession of dual characteristics of hydrogels and nanoparticles have shown great potential in targeted delivery in cancer therapy thanks to the possibility of their various modifications, and by that overcome problems with side effects of treatment. This scientific review provides an analysis of the current state of research on nanohydrogels in skin cancer medicine, highlighting their design principles, synthesis methods, and applications in drug delivery, imaging, and combination therapies.