树状聚合物是一类高度分枝结构、成分明确、具有广泛功能基团的聚合物家族，在生物医学应用中引起了广泛关注。由树状聚合物形成的胶束是理想的纳米载体，可用于传递抗癌药物，其粒径、电荷和毒性等特性得到了明确的研究，同时还具有血液循环时间、生物分布和细胞内摄取等生物学性质。本文回顾了树状聚合物胶束的分类、制备和结构，并讨论了表面修饰的特定功能基团，用于肿瘤主动定位、刺激响应性药物释放、减少毒性和延长血液循环时间。此外，我们总结了它们作为与癌症治疗相关的多种生物医学应用平台，包括药物传递、基因转染、纳米造影和联合治疗。其他应用，如组织工程和生物传感器也有涉及。最后，讨论了树状聚合物胶束的可能挑战和展望其进一步的应用。©2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Dendrimers are a family of polymers with highly branched structure, well-defined composition, and extensive functional groups, which have attracted great attention in biomedical applications. Micelles formed by dendrimers are ideal nanocarriers for delivering anticancer agents due to the explicit study of their characteristics of particle size, charge, and biological properties such as toxicity, blood circulation time, biodistribution, and cellular internalization. Here, the classification, preparation, and structure of dendrimer micelles are reviewed, and the specific functional groups modified on the surface of dendrimers for tumor active targeting, stimuli-responsive drug release, reduced toxicity, and prolonged blood circulation time are discussed. In addition, their applications are summarized as various platforms for biomedical applications related to cancer therapy including drug delivery, gene transfection, nano-contrast for imaging, and combined therapy. Other applications such as tissue engineering and biosensor are also involved. Finally, the possible challenges and perspectives of dendrimer micelles for their further applications are discussed.© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.