Strategies for targeted drug delivery in treatment of colon cancer: current trends and future perspectives

[Display omitted] •Review summarizes the current status of colon cancer and its management strategies.•Features nanoformulated targeted delivery of anticancer drugs for colon cancer treatment.•Potent nanoformulations are liposome and metal oxide nanoparticles, polymers, dendrimers.•Review outlines theragnostic application of nanocarriers in treating colon cancer.•Cites treatment and diagnosis enabled by MRI scanning and bioimaging. Despite advances in treatment modalities, colon cancer (CC) is the third most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Subsequent unfavorable effects owing to toxicity of conventional drugs are a challenging problem associated with chemotherapy. There is noticeable concern toward site-specific/targeted delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs specifically to the affected site of the colon in a predictable and reproducible manner. However, the biggest challenge in successful drug targeting for the colon is avoidance of drug absorption and/or degradation in the upper gastrointestinal tract before the drug reaches the colon. Nanoparticles endowed with targeting abilities offer a novel approach for site-specific delivery of chemotherapeutic agents. The present review focuses on recent approaches for colon-specific drug delivery (CDDS) and aims to unveil the emerging possibilities and advances in the treatment of CC with CDDS.