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Editor: George Christidis
Melanoma is one of the most aggressive skin cancers, responsible for almost 60% of lethal skin tumours (Bandarchi et al., 2010). Among anti-cancer drugs, doxorubicin (DOX) is one of the more effective drugs against melanoma. However, doxorubicin resistance is a significant problem in the fight against melanoma and the adverse side effects of DOX on normal tissues, such as cardiotoxicity, myelosuppression, hair loss and nausea and vomiting limit its clinical use (Elliott & Al-Hajj, 2009). Local delivery of anti-cancer drugs to tumours can increase the availability of drug for tumour uptake and simultaneously minimize drug resistance and systemic side effects (de Souza et al., 2010). Recently, localized chemotherapy has attracted more attention than systemic chemotherapy for the treatment of most malignant solid tumours such as melanoma (Hanes et al., 2001; Ta et al., 2009; Krajišnik et al., 2015; Hanif et al., 2016; Pasbakhsh et al., 2016; Liu et al., 2016b). Experimental evidence has provided an important rationale for the development of a local drug-delivery system for DOX for the localized chemotherapy of melanoma. Nanoparticulate systems are attractive drug-delivery vehicles for localized and controlled delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to tumour sites (Wolinsky et al., 2012). Nanoclays have drawn much attention as drug carriers due to their biocompatibility, safety, large specific surface area and large adsorption capacity of drugs (Patel et al., 2006; Jafarbeglou et al., 2016). For example, halloysite nanotubes are aluminosilicate nanoclay minerals which have been used as effective carriers for delivery of anti-cancer drugs to tumour sites. Halloysite nanotubes with modified surfaces with hydrophilic polymers showed promising potential for controlled delivery of anti-cancer drugs such as DOX and curcumin to the tumours (Liu et al., 2016a; Yang et al., 2016). Nanoclays are nanoparticles of layered silicate minerals ~1 nm thick and up to hundreds of nm wide and long (Patel et al., 2006). Bentonite nanoclay is considered to be a very useful material for controlled drug delivery and surgical implants (Wei et al., 2004; Zia et al., 2011). Bentonite, which is composed predominantly of the smectite-group clay minerals, mainly montmorillonite, has a long history of use as an excipient (suspending agent, viscosifier, binder and...