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Breast cancer is one of the epidemic threats among different cancers in women and technologically advanced approaches have been attempted to overcome breast cancer. Despite conventional therapies being effective, there are several shortcomings, such as undesirable side effects, problems in the bioavailability of some drugs, due to which several advancements have been endeavored for curing breast cancer. Nano-based advanced drug delivery systems possess tumor targeting ability, reduced side effects, high bioavailability, and controlled release of a drug, and thus, became a research hotspot for breast cancer too. Apart from the nano-based delivery system, micro-based delivery system, transdermal patches, microneedles have similarly been well-thought-out strategies. To enhance targeting, some tactics such as surface ligand attachment and use of stimuli-responsive materials have shown promises. This chapter discusses various such advanced delivery systems and briefs about various strategies to deliver anti-breast cancer drugs specifically to breast cancer.

The oral route of drug administration is the most preferred and patient-compliant route. When a drug is required to be delivered to the colon, special attention is required as the colon is the distal-most part of the gastrointestinal system. Also, a drug has to face a wide range of pH conditions before reaching the colon as it varies significantly, starting from 1.2 to 2.0 (acidic) in the stomach, 4.5–6.8 in the small intestine and 7–7.4 (basic) in the colon. Therefore, targeted approaches are required to protect a drug from the variations it has to face/deal with in the gastric milieu in order to reach the colon. Though targeting to the colon is tedious, it has its own advantages as the enzymatic activity in the colon is less, the residence time is more and bioavailability of drugs enhances significantly. Targeting of proteins and peptides can also be done easily to the colon as their structure remains integrated due to minimum enzymatic activity.