Gel-Based Drug Delivery Systems for Cancer Treatment (2nd Edition)
A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861). This special issue belongs to the section "Gel Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 30
Special Issue Editors
2. School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Interests: nanomedicine; hydrogel; tumor hyperthermia
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
2. Institute of Basic Medicine Science, Xi'an Medical University, Xi'an 710021, China
Interests: brain tumor; cell death; immunotherapy; drug resistance; stem cells; nanomaterials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Hydrogels have been widely utilized to enable drug delivery for various diseases, especially cancer, as its unique features (e.g., ROS, GSH, hypoxia and acidic pH) are beneficial for the design of drug delivery systems. Numerous new drug delivery strategies based on functional hydrogels have been proposed in recent years. For example, injectable hydrogels can be implanted into tumor tissue in a minimally invasive manner to maintain a high drug concentration and reduce systemic toxic side effects. A pH-sensitive hydrogel maintains its stable state at a physiological pH but is labile at a mildly acidic pH in tumor microenvironments, which can be exploited for enhanced cancer therapy. Hydrogel vaccines show great potential in cancer immunotherapy by causing a potent and durable antitumor response. The development of hydrogels with desirable functionalities has a promising future in the intelligent therapy of cancer.
This Special Issue intends to highlight topics related to the use of functional gels in assisting the cancer treatment of therapeutic agents, delivering therapy-related components with different modes of administration. Additionally, gels used for stimuli-responsive drug release and for facilitating chemo-dynamic therapy, immunotherapy and thermotherapy will also be featured. In the first edition, 10 papers were published, which can be accessed via the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/gels/special_issues/4MZ9K195X2
Dr. Haoan Wu
Prof. Dr. Xingchun Gao
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- functional hydrogel
- stimuli-responsive hydrogel (endogenous stimulus: pH, GSH, ROS, MMP2, etc. exogenous stimuli: light, thermo, etc.)
- bioinspired hydrogel
- smart delivery hydrogel
- injectable hydrogel (minimally invasive administration)
- nanogel (systemic administration)
- hydrogel for combination therapy
- chemo-dynamic therapy
- immunotherapy
- thermotherapy
- wound dressing or wound healing
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Related Special Issue
- Gel-Based Drug Delivery Systems for Cancer Treatment in Gels (11 articles)
