Recent Advances in Nanocarrier-Based Drug Delivery Systems for Lung Cancer

Lung cancer (LC) remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally. Conventional therapeutic strategies, including surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, are often hampered by limitations such as poor tumor selectivity, low bioavailability, and severe systemic toxicity, which compromise treatment efficacy. Nanocarriers are colloidal formulations characterized by abundant porosity and unique physicochemical properties, such as tunable size, high specific surface area, and stimuli-responsiveness. Nanocarrier-based drug delivery systems (NDDSs) have emerged as a promising solution to enable targeted delivery, controlled drug release, and theranostics. This review discusses the advantages, limitations, and clinical translation of three major classes of nanodelivery systems for LC therapy: organic, inorganic, and inorganic-organic hybrid nanosystems. Organic systems are characterized by high biocompatibility and versatile drug-loading capacity, whereas inorganic counterparts provide distinctive optical or magnetic functionalities that enable imaging and synergistic therapy. Hybrid designs integrate both material classes to improve stability and therapeutic performance. Future research is expected to focus on optimizing inhalation strategies for deep lung deposition, developing multi-targeted biomimetic carriers, advancing theranostic platforms, and employing computational tools to accelerate nanocarrier design and clinical translation. This review aims to offer critical perspectives on the development and clinical implementation of nanomedicines for LC.