Advancements in the fields of ionic liquids (ILs) broaden its applications not only in traditional use but also in different pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. Ionic liquids “Solutions for Your Success” have received a lot of interest from scientists due to a myriad of applications in the pharmaceutical industry for drug delivery systems as well as targeting different diseases. Solubility is a critical physicochemical property that determines the drug’s fate at the target site. Many promising drug candidates fail in various phases of drug research due to poor solubility. In this context, ionic liquids are regarded as effective drug delivery systems for poorly soluble medicines. ILs are also able to combine different anions/cations with other cations/anions to produce salts that satisfy the concept behind the ILs. The important characteristics of ionic liquids are the modularity of their physicochemical properties depending on the application. The review highlights the recent advancement and further applications of ionic liquids to deliver drugs in the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields.

Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease with a low survival rate and limited treatment options and in this context, multifunctional graphene quantum dot-based receptor targeting, drug delivery, and bioimaging possess immense potential to cure pancreatic cancer.

Despite a great deal of efforts made by researchers and the advances in the technology, the treatment of cancer is very challenging. Significant advances in the field of cancer therapeutics have been made but due to the complexity of solid tumor microenvironment, specially their dense extracellular matrix (which makes the conditions favorable for cancer growth, metastasis and acts as a barrier to the chemotherapeutic drugs as well as nanomedicine), the treatment of solid tumors is difficult. Overexpression of extracellular matrix components such as collagen, hyaluronan and proteoglycans in solid tumor leads to high interstitial fluid pressure, hypoxia, vascular collapse and poor perfusion which hinder the diffusion and convection of the drugs into the tumor tissue. This leads to the emergence of drug resistance and poor antitumor efficacy of chemotherapeutics. A number of approaches are being investigated in order to modulate this barrier for improved outcome of cancer chemotherapy. In this review, recent advances in the various approaches for the modulation of the extracellular matrix barrier of the solid tumor are covered and significant findings are discussed in an attempt to facilitate more investigations in this potential area to normalize the tumor extracellular matrix for improving drug exposure to solid tumor.