Self-assembling amphiphilic biocompatible copolymers as anticancer agents

Disclosed is the use of an anticancer drug in the preparation of a medicament for the treatment of cancer, wherein the anticancer drug is encapsulated within a comb polymer, said comb polymer consisting essentially of the structure shown herein, which comprises a backbone formed of alternating branch-point moieties B and hydrophilic, water-soluble polymer blocks A; and having hydrophobic side chains C and targeting moieties Z attached to the branch-point moieties, wherein: each hydrophobic side chain C is independently selected from the group consisting of C6-C30 linear or branched hydrocarbons optionally substituted with one or more hydrophilic substituents; C6-C30 cyclic or polycyclic hydrocarbons optionally substituted with one or more hydrophilic substituents; and hydrophobic amino acids, peptides and polymers; each targeting moiety Z is independently a ligand having specific binding affinity for the surface of said cancer cells; s is a bond or a spacer moiety; the value of n ranges from 1 to about 100; the average value of p ranges from greater than one to four; and the average value of r ranges from 0 to 8.