Application of nanoparticles in drug delivery for the treatment of osteosarcoma: focussing on the liposomes.

Osteosarcoma (OS) is one of the most common primary bone malignancies in children and adolescents. The toxicity to healthy tissues from conventional therapeutic strategies, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and drug resistance, severely affects OS patients' quality of life and cancer-specific outcomes. Many efforts have been made to develop various nanomaterial-based drug delivery systems with specific properties to overcome these limitations. Among the developed nanocarriers, liposomes are the most successful and promising candidates for providing targeted tumour therapy and enhancing the safety and therapeutic effect of encapsulated agents. Liposomes have low immunogenicity, high biocompatibility, prolonged half-life, active group protection, cell-like membrane structure, safety and effectiveness. This review will discuss various nanomaterial-based carriers in cancer therapy and then the characteristics and design of liposomes with a particular focus on the targeting feature. We will also summarise the recent advances in the liposomal drug delivery system for OS treatment in preclinical and clinical studies.