Polymer conjugates for focal and targeted delivery of drugs

Polymer therapeutics is a very promising and rapidly growing area of nanomedicine, which has significantly improved the therapeutic potential of low‐molecular‐weight drugs and proteins for cancer treatment. Conjugation of toxic drugs to high‐molecular‐weight carriers can lead to reduction in systemic toxicity, longer retention time in the body, improved biodistribution and therapeutic efficacy, and site‐specific passive accumulation thanks to the leaky tumor vasculature. Furthermore, a targeting moiety can be coupled to the polymer–drug conjugate in order to actively and selectively deliver it to the desired tissue and cellular target. This review presents a summary of currently developed polymer therapeutics with detailed focus on their components and supramolecular structure. The use of polymeric nanocarriers for cancer angiogenesis‐targeted delivery is illustrated by specific examples. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.