ABSTRACT
Polymeric micelles have emerged as a major class of nanocarriers for drug delivery (Liu et al. 2006, Li et al. 2009a). For effective cancer therapy, desired characteristics of micellar nanocarriers include the following: i) negligible to no toxicity of the nanocarrier; ii) high stability of the nanocarrier in the blood stream, with minimal premature drug release; iii) low uptake of the nanoparticle’s drug payload into all healthy organs and the reticuloendothelial system; iv) high tumor uptake and prolonged retention of nanoparticle’s drug inside the tumor; v) ability of the nanoparticle’s drug to be taken up by tumor cells; vi) inherent mechanisms of drug release from the nanocarrier at the tumor site or inside tumor cells; and, vii) ability to release the loaded drug from the nanocarrier on-demand. Criteria ii, vi, and vii will be addressed in this chapter.
