Current Review on Nanophytomedicines in the Treatment of Oral Cancer: Recent Trends and Treatment Prospects

Cancer is one of the major life-threatening diseases in the world and oral cancer is the 8th most common type of deadly cancers in Asian countries. Despite many causes, tobacco is the main causative agent as 90% of oral cancer cases were due to daily consumption of tobacco and its products. The major drawback of the conventional therapies for oral cancer including chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy or combination of these is the dose limiting toxicity. Developments in technology and research led to new innovative discoveries in cancer treatments. In the past few decades, increased attention has been given to researches in alternative cancer treatment strategies using plants and plant products. Recently many anticancer drugs from natural products or phytochemicals were approved internationally. Due to the low bioavailability and poor solubility of phytochemicals, various research works on nano-carrier based drug delivery systems were exploited in the recent past to make them as promising anticancer agents. In the current review, an overview of oral cancer and its treatment, risk factors, missing links of conventional therapies, contribution of nanotechnology in cancer treatment and research on phytochemical based drug treatment and different polymeric nanoparticles were discussed briefly. The future prospects for the use of various types of polymeric nanopar- ticles applied in the diagnosis and treatment of oral cancer were also mentioned. The major concern of this review is to give the reader a better understanding on various types of treatment for oral cancer.