Liposome-Based Drug Delivery for Lung Cancer

Abstract Lung cancer is the most widespread type of cancer and is characterized by an extremely high morbidity and mortality ratio. The most challenging need in lung cancer is to improve the detection rate as most patients are diagnosed with an advanced disease which implies a poor prognosis. Another demanding aspect is to improve the therapeutic efficacy and to overcome acquired resistance to currently used chemotherapeutics and targeted therapies. The use of drug-delivery systems such as liposomes has been one of the strategies addressing these challenges. This chapter presents recent reports on liposome-based delivery systems of chemotherapeutics and therapeutic genes, taking into account single- and dual-loaded vesicles. In addition, the progress in using liposomes for nebulization in the therapy of lung cancer is discussed. Much attention has been paid to liposome-based imaging agents and multifunctional platforms used for lung cancer diagnosis, imaging, and treatment. The hitherto attempts aiming at the translation of liposome-based agents into clinical trials and consequently clinical applications in lung cancer treatment and imaging are discussed.