Picture this: A chemotherapy drug courses through a patient’s veins, ready for action. The enemy tumor is in sight, fast approaching … but suddenly the toxic drug is whisked away, carried to an unsuspecting part of the body. It attacks wherever it can.
Of all the drug molecules administered to our bodies, only a small fraction reach their intended locations. For this reason, scientists have long been interested in developing site-specific drug delivery systems — especially for cancer treatments that can unintentionally damage healthy cells. Such targeted chemotherapy strategies leverage biological differences between cancerous and normal cells; for example, researchers have designed drugs that bind to the unique proteins on some cancer cells. Not all tumors, however, have these distinguishing features.
