Topical transdermal chemoprevention of breast cancer: where will nanomedical approaches deliver us?

Despite the high incidence of breast cancer, there are few pharmacological prevention strategies for the high-risk population and those that are available have low adherence. Strategies that deliver drugs directly to the breasts may increase drug local concentrations, improving efficacy, safety and acceptance. The skin of the breast has been proposed as an administration route for local transdermal therapy, which may improve drug levels in the mammary tissue, due to both deep local penetration and percutaneous absorption.

Combination of microneedles and microemulsions to increase celecoxib topical delivery for potential application in chemoprevention of breast cancer.

In spite of the high incidence of breast cancer worldwide, there are few strategies for its chemoprevention, and they have limited adherence mainly due to their serious adverse effects. As a new approach for local breast cancer chemoprevention, we developed and optimized microemulsions for topical delivery of celecoxib to the breast skin, and evaluated their combination with microneedles to improve drug penetration for localization in the mammary tissue. Microemulsions containing water at 15% (ME-15), 29% (ME-29) and 60% (ME-60) were obtained and characterized.