Clinical applications of nanomedicines in lung cancer treatment

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Owing to a lack of early-stage diagnosis, most lung cancers are detected in advanced stages, limiting the available therapeutic options. Moreover, extensive systemic chemotherapy of lung tumors is often associated with severe off-target toxicity and drug resistance of cancer cells, thus diminishing the outcomes of chemotherapy modalities. In this light, nanomedicines have opened an alternative avenue to develop more efficacious therapeutic platforms while addressing several current challenges. Clinical findings have revealed that nanomedicines improve the pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of the therapeutic agents while decreasing their systemic toxicity. This review provides an update on nanomedicines that have been clinically approved or are undergoing clinical trials for treatment of lung cancer. By discussing the clinical findings of the current nanoformulations, this review provides prospects for the development of more efficacious nanomedicines to improve the clinical outcomes of lung cancer treatment. Statement of significance Up to now, nanomedicines have shown promising results in therapeutic regimens for lung cancer patients, compared to the conventional treatments. In this context, nab-paclitaxel has exhibited a significantly higher overall response rate (ORR) than that of the solvent basedpaclitaxel (ORR: 33% vs 25%; and 41% vs 24%; in patients with squamous histology), with significantly less adverse events in NSCLC patients in combination with a carboplatin-based regimen. Therefore, we believe the clinical applications of nanomedicines in treatment of lung cancer are worth further investigation, while they significantly can improve the clinical outcomes. This Review discusses the nanomedicines which have been clinically approved, or those which are under clinical trials for lung cancer treatment, from both pharmacological and therapeutic standpoints. (c) 2020 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.