Recent Innovations in Strategies for Breast Cancer Therapy by Electrospun Scaffolds: A Review

Abstract

The most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in the world is breast cancer. Despite current treatment methods, new preventative and therapeutic strategies and development of effective breast cancer treatments are required. Conventional cancer research and treatment techniques use cancer cell lines and animal models for in vivo and in vitro investigations. Monolayer cell cultures are incapable of replicating the physiology and environment of tumors. Additionally, animal models include species-to-species differences, which make them difficult to translate cancer drugs and treatments from animal models to clinical trials. Tissue-specific structures, mechanical-biochemical signals, cell–cell and cell–extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions are employed by three-dimensional (3D) cell culture systems in order to decrease this unreliability. Therefore, in cancer research, scaffold-based tumor models, a 3D cell culture system, can be used to study tumor microenvironment, pre-screening drugs, and to evaluate drug efficacy before in vivo trials. Among many different methods, to provide more cell-binding sites, the electrospinning method can imitate the ECM by creating a network of polymer fibers with a high surface area at nanoscale. This review concentrates on the distinct physical properties and signaling regulation of cancer cell growth within the scaffolds, the sensitivity of the breast cancer cells (BCCs) to drugs in 3D electrospun scaffolds, the cell-ECM and cell–cell interactions of BCC lines in electrospun scaffold-based cultures, and using these scaffolds for drug delivery into the tumor. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023.