Safety of novel liposomal drugs for cancer treatment: Advances and prospects

Liposome is a kind of prospective abiotic drug delivery system for cancer treatment. Novel liposomes modified with PEG, cationic lipids and highly selective molecules achieve better stability, half-life and selectivity as well as less severe side effects. However, novel liposomes are still not nontoxic. PEG on the surface of liposomes interfere the combination of cancer cells and drugs. Cationic liposomes can induce oxidative damage and cytotoxicity to normal tissues. To further improve the safety of liposomal drugs, liposomal drugs must be highly selective to cancer tissues and cancer cells, at the same time, induce minimum damage to normal cells. It is necessary to gather several advantages of novel liposomes. The ideal targeted drug delivery system is like a multistage rocket. Firstly, the liposomal drugs should be sensitive to the specific environment of cancer tissues and accumulate in there. Secondly, the liposomes could selectively combine with cancer cells by surface modification. Lastly, in cancer cells, drugs release from the carriers rapidly. What's more, form the records of clinical researches, the side effects induced by liposomal drugs, such as acute infusion reaction and hand-foot syndrome(HFS), are also unignorable. More attention should be paid to these safety problems in new liposomal drugs research and development. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.