Abstract
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Cancer has since long remained a cause of concern which has eventually become leading cause of mortality. It was in the late 90 s, when polymersomes were identified as a platform for therapeutic delivery. They are smart self-assembled nanostructures that are designed as a result of block copolymers assembly which can be of versatile nature and hence their properties and stability can be altered based on the polymer type. Polymersomes are stable vesicular structure that encompass the unique ability to load hydrophobic, hydrophilic molecules or the combination of both. Apart from drug delivery they also represent an optimal choice for diagnostic purposes and as tools of imaging. For anticancer therapy, polymersomes can be conjugated with ligands or peptides meant for targeting specific receptors of malignant cells, which in turn helps in reducing off target toxicity and in enhancing the overall therapeutic effect of drug. Additionally, their properties can be altered and can be designed as stimuli responsive polymersomes which proves to be advantageous in chemotherapy of cancer. Owing to these multifaceted characteristics they have fetched the attention of several researchers for solving the problem of solubility and advancing the delivery of taxanes derivative drugs paclitaxel and docetaxel. Although there are numerous limitations related to biosafety and large scale reproducibility that still hampers it use clinically and once these challenges are resolved they can be brought to translational use. This review covers the positive aspects of use of polymersomes as carriers for taxanes drugs along with the results obtained from the experiments performed on different cancer cell lines. It further covers the existing limitations that still needs to be addressed and the future prospects of the use of these vesicular nanostructures in anticancer therapy.