Biopolymers for Antitumor Implantable Drug Delivery Systems: Recent Advances and Future Outlook

In spite of remarkable improvements in cancer treatments and survivorship, cancer still remains as one of the major causes of death worldwide. Although current standards of care provide encouraging results, they still cause severe systemic toxicity and also fail in preventing recurrence of the disease.

In order to address these issues, biomaterial-based implantable drug delivery systems (DDSs) have emerged as promising therapeutic platforms, which allow local administration of drugs directly to the tumor site. Owing to the unique properties of biopolymers, they have been used in a variety of ways to institute biodegradable implantable DDSs that exert precise spatiotemporal control over the release of therapeutic drug.

Here, the most recent advances in biopolymer-based DDSs for suppressing tumor growth and preventing tumor recurrence are reviewed. Novel emerging biopolymers as well as cutting-edge polymeric microdevices deployed as implantable antitumor DDSs are discussed. Finally, a review of a new therapeutic modality within the field, which is based on implantable biopolymeric DDSs, is given.