Abstract
Cancer remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide and continues to pose a major challenge to healthcare systems despite substantial progress in diagnosis and treatment strategies. Conventional cancer therapies, particularly chemotherapy, often suffer from several limitations including poor drug selectivity, systemic toxicity, multidrug resistance, rapid drug degradation, and undesirable adverse effects on healthy tissues. These challenges significantly reduce therapeutic effectiveness and negatively affect patient quality of life. In recent years, microencapsulation technology has emerged as a promising pharmaceutical approach for improving the delivery and therapeutic performance of anticancer agents. Microencapsulation involves the incorporation of active therapeutic substances within protective polymeric or lipid-based matrices to achieve controlled, sustained, and targeted drug release. The application of microencapsulation in cancer therapy has demonstrated considerable advantages, including enhanced drug stability, improved bioavailability, reduced systemic toxicity, prolonged circulation time, and site-specific drug targeting. Various microencapsulation techniques such as spray drying, solvent evaporation, ionic gelation, coacervation, fluidized bed coating, and microfluidic encapsulation have been extensively explored for anticancer drug delivery. Moreover, advanced microencapsulation systems using biodegradable polymers have shown significant potential for improving therapeutic outcomes and reducing adverse drug reactions. Several anticancer agents including doxorubicin, paclitaxel, cisplatin, tamoxifen, and natural bioactive compounds have been successfully incorporated into microencapsulation systems for enhanced efficacy and tumor targeting. Although promising progress has been achieved, challenges associated with large-scale manufacturing, reproducibility, formulation stability, and regulatory approval continue to affect clinical translation. This review highlights the role of microencapsulation in cancer therapy, recent technological advancements, pharmaceutical applications, therapeutic benefits, and future perspectives for improving cancer treatment outcomes.