Over the last decades, magnificent progress in the field of nanopharmaceuticals mostly with sizes smaller than 100 nm has led to the development of novel delivery systems and brightened the hope of finding new approaches to combat threatening diseases including cancer. So far, numerous efforts have been made to develop appropriate delivery systems with favorable features such as acceptable toxicity profile, high cellular uptake, low immunogenicity, and stable physicochemical properties along with distribution of the therapeutic molecule specifically to the site of action, without affecting healthy organs and tissues. Non-viral delivery systems have always been suitable options for delivery purposes. Polymers, liposomes, and inorganic delivery systems are all of the available choices in non-viral delivery systems, with each possessing their own advantages and pitfalls. This current review presents the recent advances about the application of various non-viral nanocarriers in the delivery of diverse therapeutic agents especially in cancer treatment. Targeting ligands as an important part of designing targeted nanocarriers to the site of interest or intra-cellular environment and opportunities and challenges of nano-based systems for drug and gene delivery are also discussed.

在过去的几十年中，大多数尺寸小于100 nm的纳米药物领域取得了巨大的进步，这导致了新型递送系统的发展，并为寻找新方法来应对包括癌症在内的威胁性疾病提供了希望。迄今为止，已经进行了许多努力来开发合适的递送系统，其具有有利的特征，例如可接受的毒性特征，高细胞摄取，低免疫原性和稳定的理化性质，以及治疗分子专门分布于作用部位，而不影响健康器官和组织。非病毒递送系统一直是用于递送目的的合适选择。聚合物，脂质体和无机传递系统是非病毒传递系统中所有可用的选择，每个人都有自己的优势和陷阱。本篇综述介绍了各种非病毒纳米载体在各种治疗剂尤其是癌症治疗中的应用方面的最新进展。靶向配体作为将靶向纳米载体设计到目标位点或细胞内环境的重要部分，还讨论了基于纳米的药物和基因递送系统的机遇和挑战。