Polymer therapeutics

Polymeric biomaterials that exhibit anticancer activity directly or indirectly have been a major research target and have attracted growing interest in the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. The unique characteristics of therapeutically active polymers have generated diverse classes of drug-free therapeutic strategies in cancer therapy. In the field of “polymer therapeutics,” conventional therapeutic polymers have been modified to improve their anticancer activity. In addition, novel classes of therapeutic polymers have been recently developed in the field of cancer therapy. This chapter addresses recent developments in “polymer therapeutics” and provides a focused review on polymeric drugs with multivalent biorecognition-induced apoptotic activity and cytokine receptor inhibitors as well as major classes of P-glycoprotein-inhibiting polymers, and their applications in cancer therapy.