ABSTRACT
Chemotherapy of the proliferative diseases commonly referred to as cancers or tumours typically involves the administration of agents that interfere with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis. These agents are characterised as having a low therapeutic index with attendant dose limiting side effects. It is widely acknowledged that if enough of the antitumour agent can be delivered to the tumour without causing harm to healthy tissue, an improved level of chemotherapy will be achieved. However the accompanying damage to healthy tissues that occurs once dose levels are elevated poses a severe limitation to this approach. The science of drug delivery finds a natural home in the chemotherapy of tumours as fairly simple strategies may be adopted to limit drug toxicity and achieve tumour targeting. Efforts aimed at diverting anti-tumour agents away from healthy tissues and towards tumour tissue (Figure 1) with niosomes and other synthetic surfactant vesicles will be discussed below.
