Journal of Nanomedicine & Biotherapeutic Discovery
Open Access

Abstract

Liposomes for Targeting Cancer: One Step Closer to the Holy Grail of Cancer Therapeutics?

Neha Vaghasia and Noah Federman

The use of plant-based medicines and various minerals to treat diseases is believed to date back to prehistoric medicine. Ancient texts from the Ramayana and The Papyrus Ebers make references to malignant diseases and their treatments [1]. However, it was not until the early twentieth century that the first modern drugs to treat cancer came about. Mustard gas, initially intended for use as a chemical warfare agent during World War I, was found to be a potent suppressor of hematopoiesis [2]. Goodman and Gilman later studied the Nitrogen Mustards as an effective treatment for cancers. Their findings were later applied successfully, however short lived, in the treatment of lymphoma [3]. Thus, the field of chemotherapy was born! Since then, numerous chemotherapeutic agents have been designed and discovered for the treatment of various oncologic malignancies. Unable to truly differentiate cancerous from normal cells, these systemic chemotherapeutic agents often have significant bystander effects resulting in dose limiting toxicities, and not infrequently to permanent end organ damage. The future of cancer therapy has thus rested on the development of targeted therapies that would both increase the cytotoxicity to cancer cells while limiting the deleterious effects on normal cells.