Hypoxia-Responsive Polymersomes for Stemness Reduction in Patient-Derived Solid Tumor Spheroids.

Aggressive solid tumors are associated with rapid growth, early hypoxia, a lack of targeted therapies, and a poor prognosis. The hypoxic niches within the rapidly growing solid tumors give rise to a stem-cell-like phenotype with higher metastasis and drug resistance. To overcome the drug resistance of these regions, we used hypoxia-responsive polymersomes with an encapsulated anticancer drug (doxorubicin, Dox) and a stemness modulator (all-trans retinoic acid, ATRA).