Recent advances in nanomedicine for innovative oral cancer therapeutics-a review

Oral cancer (OC) is one of the most common malignant conditions worldwide, especially in Southeast Asia. Despite the herculean efforts made in developing advanced therapeutic and diagnostic modalities, the 5-year survival rate of this aggressive cancer has not improved significantly over the past few years. The various inaccessible sites of OC and the high toxicity of current chemotherapeutic and radiotherapeutic regimens remain a challenge for both its diagnosis and treatment. There are various conventional therapies to treat OC, like surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Use of these modalities either in isolation or in combination has improved the survival, but the results remain far from optimal. Recently, nanotechnology, as an innovative tool, has provided effective and out-of-the-box solutions for overcoming the limitations of conventional treatment modalities for OC. Advances in nanotechnology have paved the way for the development of efficient and targeted drug delivery, reduced toxicity, multimodal therapeutic approaches, and theranostic platforms. We have summarized the recent advances in the development of various nanoplatforms for effectively treating OC by improving chemotherapy, radiotherapy, gene therapy, photodynamic therapy, and photothermal therapy. This narrative review provides researchers insights into combating this dreadful public health condition using nanomedicine platforms in combination with conventional and unconventional treatment modalities.Graphical AbstractTherapeutic modalities and the nanoplatforms for oral cancer treatment. (A) Quantum dot, (B) Gold nanoparticle, (C) Polymeric nanoparticle, (D) Liposome, (E) Magnetic nanoparticle