Stimuli-Responsive Hydrogel Systems for Breast Cancer Therapy: Advances in Targeted Delivery and Tumor Microenvironment Modulation.

Breast cancer (BC) stands as a major medical concern for women because treatment hurdles include drug resistance combined with treatment failure and severe side effects and the intricate tumor microenvironment (TME). The treatment-resistant breast cancer subtype triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) exhibits high aggressiveness through its failure to respond to targeted treatment yet maintains substantial metastatic potential. Hydrogels that react to stimuli have recently shown promise as solutions for solving these clinical issues. These hydrogels show response to precise stimuli which include pH, temperature and light and magnetic fields and biological elements including glutathione together with overexpressed enzymes MMP2 and MMP9 that appear within BC tumors. Hydrogel systems that respond to enzymes release drugs precisely at tumors thus minimizing drug side effects and optimizing their therapeutic effects. Hydrogel systems become more effective because of their ability to control drug delivery and combine various treatments when nanomaterials are incorporated as parts of their structure. Hydrogels must have adequate mechanical toughness because it enables them to withstand physical pressure without losing their drug release capabilities throughout the extended treatment period. This review has demonstrated that hydrogel-based drug delivery systems decrease tumor dimensions while inhibiting metastasis making them an advanced treatment strategy for BC management. The novel hydrogel platforms will lead to individualized treatment methods which show substantial promise to enhance breast cancer therapy results.