Peroxide mediated oxygen delivery in cancer therapy

Hypoxia is a serious obstacle in cancer treatment. The aberrant vascular network as well as the abnormal extracellular matrix arrangement results in formation of a hypoxic regions in tumors which show high resistance to the curing. Hypoxia makes the cancer treatment challengeable via two mechanisms; first and foremost, hypoxia changes the cell metabolism and leads the cells towards an aggressive and metastatic phenotype and second, hypoxia decreases the efficiency of the various cancer treatment modalities. Most of the cancer treatment methods including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, photodynamic therapy, sonodynamic therapy and immunotherapy are negatively affected by the oxygen deprivation. Therefore, the regional oxygenation is requisite to alleviate the negative impacts of the hypoxia on tumor cells and tumor therapy modalities. A great deal of effort has been put forth to resolve the problem of hypoxia in tumors. Peroxides have gained tremendous attention as oxygen generating components in cancer therapy. The concurrent loading of the peroxides and cancer treatment components into a single delivery system can bring about a multipurpose delivery system and substantially encourage the success of the cancer amelioration. In this review, we have tried to after the description of a relation between hypoxia and cancer treatment modalities, discuss the role of peroxides in tumor hyperoxygenation and cancer therapy success. Thereafter, we have summarized a number of vehicles for the delivery of the peroxide alone or in combination with other therapeutic components for cancer treatment. [Display omitted] •Hypoxia is a serious obstacle in cancer treatment.•Oxygenation is vital to alleviate the impacts of the hypoxia on cancer treatment.•We tried to describe a relation between hypoxia and cancer treatment modalities.•We discussed the role of peroxides in tumor hyperoxygenation and cancer therapy.•We summarized a number of oxygen releasing vehicles for cancer treatment.