Cancer remains one of the leading cause of death worldwide. Current therapies are still ineffective in completely eradicating the disease. In the last two decades, the use of nanodelivery systems has emerged as an effective way to potentiate the therapeutic properties of anti-cancer drugs by improving their solubility and stability, prolong drug half-lives in plasma, minimize drug’s toxicity by reducing its off-target distribution, and promote drugs’ accumulation at the desired target site. Liposomes and polymer nanoparticles are the most studied and have demonstrated to be the most effective delivery systems for anti-cancer drugs. However, both liposomes and polymeric nanoparticles suffer from limitations, including high instability, rapid drug release, limited drug loading capacity, low biocompatibility and lack of suitability for large-scale production. To overcome these limitations, lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles (LPHNPs) have been developed to merge the advantages of both lipid- and polymer-based nanocarriers, such as high biocompatibility and stability, improved drug loading and controlled release, as well as increased drug half-lives and therapeutic efficacy. This review provides an overview on the synthesis, properties and application of LPHNPs for cancer therapy.

癌症仍然是全世界死亡的主要原因之一。目前的疗法在完全根除这种疾病方面仍然无效。在过去的 20 年中，纳米递送系统的使用已成为增强抗癌药物治疗特性的有效方法，通过提高抗癌药物的溶解度和稳定性、延长药物在血浆中的半衰期、通过减少药物的离目标分布，并促进药物在所需目标部位的积累。脂质体和聚合物纳米颗粒是研究最多的，并已证明是最有效的抗癌药物输送系统。然而，脂质体和聚合物纳米颗粒都存在局限性，包括高不稳定性、药物释放快、载药量有限、生物相容性低，不适合大规模生产。为了克服这些限制，脂质-聚合物混合纳米颗粒 (LPHNPs) 的开发融合了基于脂质和聚合物的纳米载体的优点，例如高生物相容性和稳定性、改进的载药量和控释，以及增加的药物一半- 生命和治疗效果。本综述概述了 LPHNPs 在癌症治疗中的合成、性质和应用。