Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Pharmacol. Jun 9, 2015; 4(2): 168-171
Published online Jun 9, 2015. doi: 10.5497/wjp.v4.i2.168
Published online Jun 9, 2015. doi: 10.5497/wjp.v4.i2.168
Enhanced permeability and retention effect based nanomedicine, a solution for cancer
Jun Fang, Research Institute of Drug Delivery Science, Sojo University, Kumamoto 860-0082, Japan
Jun Fang, Laboratory of Microbiology and Oncology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Sojo University, Kumamoto 860-0082, Japan
Author contributions: Fang J solely contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Jun Fang, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Research Institute of Drug Delivery Science, Sojo University, Ikeda 4-22-1, Kumamoto 860-0082, Japan. fangjun@ph.sojo-u.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-96-3264137 Fax: +81-96-3265048
Received: January 23, 2015
Peer-review started: January 24, 2015
First decision: February 7, 2015
Revised: March 6, 2015
Accepted: April 1, 2015
Article in press: April 7, 2015
Published online: June 9, 2015
Peer-review started: January 24, 2015
First decision: February 7, 2015
Revised: March 6, 2015
Accepted: April 1, 2015
Article in press: April 7, 2015
Published online: June 9, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Current cancer chemotherapy is less effective with adverse side effects, mostly due to lack of tumor-selectivity. Thus tumor-targeting is known the key for successful chemotherapy. Molecular-target therapy is such a strategy but the clinical results are disappointing probably due to the diversity of cancer-related molecules and enormous mutations. A more general tumor-targeting strategy is based on the unique physiophathological and anatomical features of solid tumors - enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. Accordingly nanomedicine has been developed, with promising therapeutic potential and very less side effects. We thus believe EPR-based nanomedicine will be a solution for cancer in the future.