Recent advances in drug formulation development for targeting lung cancer

Abstract

Abstract Lung cancer is the leading cause of death among different cancer types owing its diagnosis often at advanced stage and ineffective first-line treatments. Despite the discovery and designs of new drugs, the clinical outcome of lung cancer is still relatively low. Ineffective treatment is partly due to the lack of targeted behavior of current formulations in both in vivo and human trials despite promising findings in in vitro settings. Furthermore, the development of aggressive metastatic cells and drug resistance is another reason contributing to the failure of lung cancer treatment. Owing to the heterogeneity and different localization of tumor nodules, chemotherapy is no longer the most suitable treatment modality for all patients. Therefore, targeted therapy is emerging as an important treatment modality for lung cancer. This chapter explores the advances and current clinical evident in immunotherapies that are guided by the targeting of specific pathways and signaling molecules present in tumor microenvironment. In addition, as drug delivery via pulmonary administration is another alternative to achieve direct localization and targeting of drugs to the lung, this chapter also summarizes the recent technological advances of inhalable formulation to treat lung cancer.