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Combined hyperthermia and chemotherapy as a synergistic anticancer treatment

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Abstract

To date, hyperthermia and chemotherapy have been widely investigated in the field of anticancer nanomedicine. However, in many cases, the efficacy of monotherapies have been limited owing to the heterogeneity of cancers and the acquired drug resistance. Noteworthy, hyperthermia has been demonstrated to offer numerous advantages when integrated with chemotherapy in nanoplatforms, namely increased accumulation of drugs in tumor site, enhanced cellular uptake, inhibition of DNA repair, and accelerated drug cytotoxicity against cancer cells. These evidences suggest a promising anticancer synergistic effect of hyperthermia and chemotherapy. This review will discuss the underlying mechanisms of action of chemo-hyperthermia combination therapy, and especially the strategies of design of advanced nanocarriers to effectively co-deliver hyperthermia and chemotherapeutic agents to the tumor based on various types of materials.

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(Reprinted with permission from Yang et al. 2009. Copyright© 2009 John Wiley and Sons)

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(Reprinted with permission from Zha et al. 2013. Copyright© 2013 Royal Society of Chemistry)

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(Reprinted with permission from Nguyen et al. 2017. Copyright© 2017 Tayer & Francis Online)

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grants funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (No. 2018R1A2A2A05021143) and by the Medical Research Center Program (2015R1A5A2009124) through the NRF funded by MSIP.

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Correspondence to Duy Hieu Truong, Tuan Hiep Tran or Jong Oh Kim.

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Phung, D.C., Nguyen, H.T., Phuong Tran, T.T. et al. Combined hyperthermia and chemotherapy as a synergistic anticancer treatment. J. Pharm. Investig. 49, 519–526 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40005-019-00431-5

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