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Pancreatic cancer has been classified as a cancer of unmet need. After diagnosis the patient prognosis is dismal with few surviving over 5 years. Treatment regimes are highly patient variable and often the patients are too sick to undergo surgical resection or chemotherapy. These chemotherapies are not effective often because patients are diagnosed at late stages and tumour metastasis has occurred. Nanotechnology can be used in order to formulate potent anticancer agents to improve their physicochemical properties such as poor aqueous solubility or prolong circulation times after administration resulting in improved efficacy. Studies have reported the use of nanotechnologies to improve the efficacy of gemcitabine (the current first line treatment) as well as investigating the potential of using other drug molecules which have previously shown promise but were unable to be utilised due to the inability to administer through appropriate routes--often related to solubility. Of the nanotechnologies reported, many can offer site specific targeting to the site of action as well as a plethora of other multifunctional properties such as image guidance and controlled release. This review focuses on the use of the major nanotechnologies both under pre-clinical development and those which have recently been approved for use in pancreatic cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the in vitro and in vivo pancreatic anticancer activity of a nano-sized formulation based on novel polyallylamine grafted with 5% mole cholesteryl pendant groups (CH-PAA). Methods: Insoluble novel anticancer drug, Bisnaphthalimidopropyldiaaminooctane (BNIPDaoct), was loaded into CH-PAA polymeric self-assemblies by probe sonication. Hydrodynamic diameters and polydispersity index measurements were determined by photon correlation spectroscopy. The in vitro cytotoxicity evaluation of the formulation was carried out by the sulforhodamine B dye assay with human pancreatic adenocarcinoma BxPC-3 cells, while for the in vivo study, Xenograff mice were used . In vitro apoptotic cell death from the drug formulation was confirmed by flow cytometric analysis. Results: The aqueous polymer-drug formulation had a mean hydrodynamic size of 183 nm. The drug aqueous solubility was increased from negligible concentration to 0.3 mg mL. CH-PAA polymer alone did not exhibit cytotoxicity, but the new polymer-drug formulation showed potent in vitro and in vivo anticancer activity. The mode of cell death in the in vitro study was confirmed to be apoptotic. The in vivo results revealed that the CH-PAA alone did not have any anti-proliferative effect, but the CH-PAA-drug formulation exhibited similar tumour reduction efficacy as the commercial drug, gemcitabine. Conclusions: The proposed formulation shows potential as pancreatic cancer therapeutics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]