The journey of multifunctional bone scaffolds fabricated from traditional toward modern techniques

Abstract

As a bone scaffold, meeting all basic requirements besides dealing with other bone-related issues-bone cancer and accelerated regeneration-is not expected from traditional scaffolds, but a newer class of scaffolds called multifunctional. From a clinical point of view, being a multifunctional scaffold means reducing in healing time, direct costs-medicine, surgery, and hospitalization-and indirect costs-loss of mobility, losing job, and pain. The main aim of the present review is following the multifunctional bone scaffolds trend to deal with both bone regeneration and cancer therapy. Special consideration is given to different fabrication techniques which have been applied to yield these materials spanning from traditional to modern ones. Moreover, the hierarchical structure of bone plus bone cancers and available medicines to them are introduced to familiarize the potential reader of review with the pluri-disciplinary essence of the field. Eventually, a brief discussion relating to the future trend of these materials is provided.