Fariba Pourkarim
1,2 
, Elaheh Rahimpour
3,4, Sima Alvani
5,6, Abolghasem Jouyban
3,7* 1 Student Research Committee, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
2 Drug Applied Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
3 Pharmaceutical Analysis Research Center and Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
4 Food and Drug Safety Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
5 Biotechnology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
6 Immunology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
7 Kimia Idea Pardaz Azarbayjan (KIPA) Science Based Company, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Abstract
Cancer is still a serious disease with high incidence over the past decades. Many anticancer drugs are discovered and used to treat cancer, among them, taxanes such as paclitaxel and docetaxel have high lipophilicity and low aqueous solubility which is further magnified considering the strong need for administering them by intravenous infusion. Currently, the poor water-solubility of taxanes is improved by prodrug formation, conjugation, inclusion complexation, micellar solubilization and liposome-based formulations. Recent achievements for solubilization of taxanes are reviewed and critically discussed regarding their pharmaceutical and chemical applications.