Over the last decade, numerous investigations have attempted to clarify the intricacies of tumor development to propose effective approaches for cancer treatment. Thanks to the unique properties of hydrogels, researchers have made significant progress in tumor model reconstruction, tumor diagnosis, and associated therapies. Notably, hydrogel-based systems can be adjusted to respond to cancer-specific hallmarks and/or external stimuli. These well-known drug reservoirs can be used as smart carriers for multiple cargos, including both naked and nanoparticle-encapsulated chemotherapeutics, genes, and radioisotopes. Recent works have attempted to specialize hydrogels for cancer research; we comprehensively review this topic for the first time, synthesizing past results and defining paths for future work.

在过去的十年中，许多研究试图阐明肿瘤发展的复杂性，以提出有效的癌症治疗方法。由于水凝胶的独特性质，研究人员在肿瘤模型重建，肿瘤诊断和相关疗法方面取得了重大进展。值得注意的是，可以调整基于水凝胶的系统，以响应于特定于癌症的特征和/或外部刺激。这些众所周知的药物库可以用作多种货物的智能载体，包括裸露的和纳米颗粒包裹的化学疗法，基因和放射性同位素。最近的工作试图将水凝胶专门用于癌症研究。我们将首次全面审查该主题，综合过去的结果并为将来的工作确定路径。