Using
hydrogels for delivering cancer therapeutics is advantageous
in pharmaceutical usage as they have an edge over traditional delivery,
which is tainted due to the risk of toxicity that it imbues. Hydrogel
usage leads to the development of a more controlled drug release system
owing to its amenability for structural metamorphosis, its higher
porosity to seat the drug molecules, and its ability to shield the
drug from denaturation. The thing that makes its utility even more
enhanced is that they make themselves more recognizable to the body
tissues and hence can stay inside the body for a longer time, enhancing
the efficiency of the delivery, which otherwise is negatively affected
since the drug is identified by the human immunity as a foreign substance,
and thus, an attack of the immunity begins on the drug injected. A
variety of hydrogels such as thermosensitive, pH-sensitive, and magnetism-responsive
hydrogels have been included and their potential usage in drug delivery
has been discussed in this review that aims to present recent studies
on hydrogels that respond to alterations under a variety of circumstances
in “reducing” situations that mimic the microenvironment
of cancerous cells.