Cancer is one of the most lethal disease that affects humans. Many anticancer agents have been developed but have downsides such as toxicity, affordability and limits of the administered dose. Alternatively, natural anticancer products are promising due to their non-toxic nature. Indeed, natural anticancer products have doubled the human life span in twentieth century. Moreover, over 60% of approved drugs and drug candidates against cancer are of natural origin. Yet, natural drugs have limitations such as non-specific action, low aqueous solubility and reduced bioavailability. These limitations can be circumvented by delivering drugs using polymeric nanocarriers. For instance, polylactic acid and polylactic-co-glycolic acid have been used as carriers in the medical field for a very long time. About 20 products based on these polymers have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and European Medicine. Polymeric nanocarriers are versatile and have potential to meet actual challenges in the delivery of natural products for cancer treatment. Here we review natural products in treating cancer with focus on polymeric nanocarriers.

癌症是影响人类的最致命的疾病之一。已经开发了许多抗癌剂，但具有诸如毒性，负担能力和给药剂量限制的缺点。另外，天然抗癌产品因其无毒性质而很有前景。实际上，在二十世纪，天然的抗癌产品使人类的寿命翻了一番。此外，超过60％的批准的抗癌药物和候选药物是天然来源。然而，天然药物具有局限性，例如非特异性作用，低水溶性和降低的生物利用度。这些限制可以通过使用聚合物纳米载体递送药物来规避。例如，聚乳酸和聚乳酸-共-乙醇酸在医疗领域中用作载体已经很长时间了。基于这些聚合物的大约20种产品已获得美国食品药品监督管理局和欧洲医学的批准。聚合纳米载体用途广泛，有潜力满足癌症治疗所需天然产品交付方面的实际挑战。在这里，我们将重点研究高分子纳米载体在治疗癌症中的天然产物。