Microneedles for delivery of anticancer therapeutics: recent trends and technologies

Cancer tops the list of most life-threatening diseases worldwide, recording around 10 million deaths annually. Implementation of microneedles (MNs) as a therapeutic delivery vehicle has revolutionized anticancer therapy, thanks to MNs' minimally invasive and painless delivery aspect, high therapeutic efficacy, low cost, and relative biosafety. In this review, we overview the application of MNs for the delivery of different anticancer therapeutic and diagnostic modalities, including drugs, peptides, antibodies, gene, and vaccines. We further highlighted the fabrication strategies, materials, and therapeutic release patterns from MNs. Finally, we discussed biosafety concerns, translational aspects, limitations, and future perspective of MNs as an efficient anticancer theranostic system.