Targeted Delivery System of Nanobiomaterials in Anticancer Therapy: From Cells to Clinics

Figure 2

Overview of cancer targeting strategies from the cells to the clinics. This overview illustrates the most clinically relevant targeting strategies for anticancer therapy: passive targeting and active targeting. Passive targeting strategy is defined as the accumulation of nanoplatforms at the cancer cells by EPR effect, which uses nanoplatforms without targeting moieties. In this way, particular interaction will be proceeded to be internalized onto the cancer cells. On the other hand, active targeting strategy means the ligand-targeted or the receptor-mediated approach based on the cancer-specific targeting moieties of nanoplatforms, which interact with the specific receptor-ligand interaction on the cancer cells. Based on the cancer targeting strategies, translational medicine will be developed for the diagnostics, therapeutics, and imaging.