Over the last decades, the search and development of efficient drug delivery systems based on nanotechnological approaches have raised great attention for the possibility to diagnose and treat cancer. Nanocarriers have been and are being continuously designed to circumvent the problems associated with conventional chemotherapy, including the lack of specificity, severe side effects, low drug stability and bioavailability, induction of a drug-resistant phenotype. A number of nanocarriers have allowed achieving an increased drug therapeutic efficacy in preclinical studies and some of them also in clinical trials.

The session "New drug delivery systems in biomedical applications"co-chaired by Dr. Annarica Calcabrini and Dr. Stefania Meschini (CNRVF – ISS, Istituto Superiore di Sanità) will focus on structural and functional features of different types of nanocarriers and their possible application in biomedical fields, in order to obtain, among others, target specific inhibition (i.e. cancer survival pathways), improvement of photodynamic therapy, increased nanocarrier efficiency due to functionalization steps, controlled release of conventional and natural antitumor agents in cancer cells.