Bone cancer is a malignant tumor that originates in the bone and destroys the healthy bone tissues. Of the various types of bone tumors, osteosarcoma is the most commonly diagnosed primary bone malignancy. The standard treatment of primary malignant bone tumors comprises of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Owing to the lack of proven treatments, different forms of alternative therapeutic approaches have been examined over the past decades. Among the new therapeutic methodologies, nanotechnology-based anti-cancer therapy has paved the way for new target strategies for bone cancer treatment and bone regeneration. They include approaches such as co-delivery of multiple drug cargoes, enhancement of their biodistribution and transport properties, normalizing accumulation and optimization of drug release profiles to overcome shortcomings of the existing therapy. This review examines the standard treatments for osteosarcoma, their lacunae and the evolving therapeutic strategies based on nanocarriers mediated combinational drug delivery systems and future perspectives for osteosarcoma therapy.
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