The role of nanomedicine in the treatment of osteosarcoma and in the prevention of infections

Abstract

Osteosarcoma is the most common bone cancer in children and the third most common cancer in adolescence. The current survival rate for osteosarcoma is 60-70% which has not improved over the past two decades. The treatment of osteosarcoma is complicated by cytotoxicity and side effects of various therapeutic drugs and osteosarcoma can also be accompanied with infection which can happen post-surgical resection or can be associated with implants causing graft rejection. The goal of utilizing nano-medicine in the treatment of osteosarcoma is to take advantage of nanocarriers for specific targeted drug delivery to cancer cells and to lower the negative impact of drugs on normal cells. Further, nanoparticles can prevent infections in patients. In this paper, we review specific nanomaterials, various micelleplexes, and their role in targeted drug delivery to osteosarcoma cells. We will also review the anti-cancer effect of nanoparticles that should replace chemotherapy in the future. This paper also reviews the role of nanoparticles in passive and active targeting of osteosarcoma cells and the role of nanocomposites in cancer treatment and infection prevention in the osteosarcoma.