Multifunctional nanomedicine platforms for cancer therapy.

Biocompatible nanomaterials have emerged as ideal platforms to develop multi-functionalization for achieving a compound effect using one system in which each component has a specially designed function. In this context, this article reviews multifunctional nanomedicine platforms for cancer therapy. The paper describes different types of multifunctional nanomedicine platforms, mainly co-delivery of drugs/genes in a single formulation for synergistic anticancer effect, specific strategies for targeting cancer therapy, smart control released drug delivery systems responding to certain internal or external stimuli, paradigms for theranostics to monitor effects in real time, and combination drug with thermal, sound, and light energies mediating multi-mode cancer treatment. Multifunctional nanomedicine platforms with different designs and therapeutic approaches for cancer and their translation from bench to bedside offer promising opportunities to benefit patients in the future.