CaCO₃ nanoplatform for cancer treatment: drug delivery and combination therapy

The use of nanocarriers for drug delivery has opened up exciting new possibilities in cancer treatment. Among them, calcium carbonate (CaCO3) nanocarriers have emerged as a promising platform due to their exceptional biocompatibility, biosafety, cost-effectiveness, wide availability, and pH-responsiveness. These nanocarriers can efficiently encapsulate a variety of small-molecule drugs, proteins, and nucleic acids, as well as co-encapsulate multiple drugs, providing targeted and sustained drug release with minimal side effects. However, the effectiveness of single-drug therapy using CaCO3 nanocarriers is limited by factors such as multidrug resistance, tumor metastasis, and recurrence. Combination therapy, which integrates multiple treatment modalities, offers a promising approach for tackling these challenges by enhancing efficacy, leveraging synergistic effects, optimizing therapy utilization, tailoring treatment approaches, reducing drug resistance, and minimizing side effects. CaCO3 nanocarriers can be employed for combination therapy by integrating drug therapy with photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, sonodynamic therapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy, radiofrequency ablation therapy, and imaging. This review provides an overview of recent advancements in CaCO3 nanocarriers for drug delivery and combination therapy in cancer treatment over the past five years. Furthermore, insightful perspectives on future research directions and development of CaCO3 nanoparticles as nanocarriers in cancer treatment are discussed.