Issue 52, 2022

Smart biomaterials for enhancing cancer therapy by overcoming tumor hypoxia: a review

Abstract

Hypoxia is a distinctive feature of most solid tumors due to insufficient oxygen supply of the abnormal vasculature, which cannot work with the demands of the fast proliferation of cancer cells. One of the main obstacles to limiting the efficacy of cancer medicines is tumor hypoxia. Thus, oxygen is a vital parameter for controlling the efficacy of different types of cancer therapy, such as chemotherapy (CT), photodynamic therapy (PDT), photothermal therapy (PTT), immunotherapy (IT), and radiotherapy (RT). Numerous technologies have attracted much attention for enhancing oxygen distribution in humans and improving the efficacy of cancer treatment. Such technologies include treatment with hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO), delivering oxygen by polysaccharides (e.g., cellulose, gelatin, alginate, and silk) and other biocompatible synthetic polymers (e.g., PMMA, PLA, PVA, PVP and PCL), decreasing oxygen consumption, producing oxygen in situ in tumors, and using polymeric systems as oxygen carriers. Herein, this review provides an overview of the relationship between hypoxia in tumor cells and its role in the limitation of different cancer therapies alongside the numerous strategies for oxygen delivery using polysaccharides and other biomaterials as carriers and for oxygen generation.

Graphical abstract: Smart biomaterials for enhancing cancer therapy by overcoming tumor hypoxia: a review

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
24 Sep 2022
Accepted
15 Nov 2022
First published
25 Nov 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2022,12, 33835-33851

Smart biomaterials for enhancing cancer therapy by overcoming tumor hypoxia: a review

S. A. Salim, T. A. Salaheldin, M. M. Elmazar, A. F. Abdel-Aziz and E. A. Kamoun, RSC Adv., 2022, 12, 33835 DOI: 10.1039/D2RA06036A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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