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Abstract
The advent of sophisticated drug delivery strategies for cancer applications has inundated the scientific and clinical community with new tactics and approaches such as molecular targeting, nanotechnology-based methods and personalised therapies. Unfortunately, the clinical impact has been moderate at best, falling significantly short from revolutionising existing chemotherapeutic methodologies. To this day, a cancer patient has a higher probability of receiving traditional systemically administered drugs than a more sophisticated targeted or nanotechnology-based therapeutic. This is not a reflection upon the novelty or quality of the technologies, but an indication of opportunity for a new approach that offers the realisation of the full potential of these scientific advances. This approach acknowledges the significance of the numerous biological barriers presented in the human body and their sequential nature. It is then recommended that computational mathematical tools are used to predict which nanovectors, surface modifications, therapeutic agents and penetration enhancers to use for a multi-stage drug delivery strategy. An approach where several stages of micro-/nano-vectors are nested within each other and delivered to overcome specific biological barriers to ultimately release a concentrated dose of a therapeutic payload at the intended lesion site. This novel, multi-stage strategy enables efficient localised delivery of chemotoxic drugs that may lead to significant improvements in therapy efficacy, reduced systemic toxicity and decreased total amount of injected drugs.