Pharmaceutical Science: New Insights and Developments Vol. 12

Tumour-targeted drug delivery is reshaping cancer therapy by improving treatment outcomes while reducing the systemic toxicity seen with conventional chemotherapy. Standard chemotherapy lacks specificity — the drug spreads throughout the body, causing severe side effects and harm to healthy tissues. To address this, researchers have developed advanced delivery strategies that actively guide drugs to tumour sites. These include passive targeting, active ligand-based targeting, and systems that respond to tumour-specific stimuli. Advances in nanotechnology have made it possible to engineer precise nanocarriers such as liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, and biomimetic carriers. These systems enhance drug solubility, stability, and bioavailability, and enable controlled release directly at the tumour. Newer approaches are pushing targeting even further. Theranostic platforms combine therapy and diagnostics, while exosome-based carriers, gene and mRNA therapies, and CRISPR delivery systems are improving both precision and therapeutic impact. Still, major hurdles remain. Tumours are highly heterogeneous, the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect varies between patients, and biological barriers often block drug penetration. Immune clearance, potential toxicity, manufacturing scalability, and regulatory barriers also slow clinical progress. Current strategies to overcome these issues focus on remodelling the tumour microenvironment, designing multi-targeted carriers, engineering smarter surfaces, using biodegradable materials, and building stimuli-responsive systems. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are now speeding up nanocarrier design and helping bridge the gap to clinical use. Together, these developments are moving tumour-targeted delivery closer to true precision medicine — paving the way for cancer treatments that are safer, more effective, and tailored to individual patients.