Calcium phosphate cements as bone drug delivery systems: a review.

Since calcium phosphate cements were proposed, several formulations have been developed, some of them commercialised, and they have proven to be very efficient bone substitutes in different applications. Some of their properties, such as the injectability, or the low-temperature setting, which allows the incorporation of different drugs, make them very attractive candidates as drug carriers. In this article, the performance of calcium phosphate cements as carriers of different types of drugs, such as antibiotics, analgesics, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, as well as growth factors is reviewed.