Objective: Through information about the recent advances regarding cancer hallmarks, we could comprehensively understand the pharmacological effects and explore the mechanisms of the interaction between the nanomaterials, which could provide opportunities to develop mechanism-based nanomedicine to treat human cancers.
Methods: We collected related information and data from articles.
Results: In this review, we discussed the characteristics of cancer including tumor angiogenesis, abnormalities in tumor blood vessels, uncontrolled cell proliferation markers, multidrug resistance, tumor metastasis, cancer cell metabolism, and tumor immune system that provide opportunities and challenges for nanomedicine to be directed to specific cancer cells and portray the progress that has been accomplished in application of nanotechnology for cancer treatment.
Conclusion: The information presented in this review can provide useful references for further studies on developing effective nanomedicine for the treatment of cancer.