Nanomedicine Revisited: Next Generation Therapies for Brain Cancer

Abstract

Abstract Brain cancer persists as a difficult‐to‐treat condition. In particular, metastatic brain cancer and malignant primary brain tumors such as glioblastoma (GBM) are among the most deadly and still carry a dismal prognosis despite current standard of care with surgery and chemo‐radiation. Recent advances in nanotechnology have led to innovative nanomedicine strategies for the treatment of brain cancers and specifically for GBM. These strategies represent promising alternative or adjunctive therapies for conventional treatment modalities and are increasingly designed to target specific cell types such as brain tumor‐initiating cells and immune cells. This review provides an update on emerging insights into these nanomedicine strategies with a focus on nanoparticles as tools that facilitate 1) drug delivery 2) gene therapy, and 3) engineered‐cellular therapy for GBM and future directions for brain cancer treatment.