Advances and trends of hydrogel therapy platform in localized tumor treatment: A review

Abstract Due to limitations of treatment and the stubbornness of infiltrative tumor cells, the outcome of conventional antitumor treatment is often compromised by a variety of factors, including severe side effects, unexpected recurrence, and massive tissue loss during the treatment. Hydrogel‐based therapy is becoming a promising option of cancer treatment, because of its controllability, biocompatibility, high drug loading, prolonged drug release, and specific stimuli‐sensitivity. Hydrogel‐based therapy has good malleability and can reach some areas that cannot be easily touched by surgeons. Furthermore, hydrogel can be used not only as a carrier for tumor treatment agents, but also as a scaffold for tissue repair. In this review, we presented the latest researches in hydrogel applications of localized tumor therapy and highlighted the recent progress of hydrogel‐based therapy in preventing postoperative tumor recurrence and improving tissue repair, thus proposing a new trend of hydrogel‐based technology in localized tumor therapy. And this review aims to provide a novel reference and inspire thoughts for a more accurate and individualized cancer treatment.