One of the most common aggressive and primary brain tumors is glioma as a result of its tendency to penetrate the brain tissue and fast proliferation (
1). Gliomas can be divided into two types, namely low grade (II and III) and high grade (IV) based upon histopathology diagnosis according to the classification of the World Health Organization (WHO) (
2). Between these grades, the majority of diagnoses referred to high-grade malignant glioblastoma, which carries the worst prognosis. Factors that are important in the prognosis of Glioma depend on the histological grade of the tumor, the patient’s age, and Karnofsky's Performance Score (KPS) (
2). These tumors possess the ability to invade surrounding tissue extensively; so, curative resection may become impossible (
3). Some of the general treatments for gliomas are a combination of surgery, radiation therapy, and systemic chemotherapy (
4). Malignant glioblastoma has very poor outcomes with just less than 5% of patients surviving in 5 years post-diagnosis even with the best current treatments (
2). In light of these poor results, and to increase the extent of novel therapies, there is significant room for improvement and innovation in the area of managing the treatment. An application of nanotechnology which holds great promise for revolutionizing medical treatments, faster diagnosis, drug delivery, tissue regeneration, and imaging is nanomedicine (
5). Nanotechnology helps deliver the drug to the targeted tissue across the blood-brain barrier (BBB), control releasing the drug, and avoid degradation processes (
6). The other performance of this system is toxicity reduction of peripheral organs and biodegradability. Using nucleic acids as drugs are called gene therapy (
7). Delivery or vector systems are needed to deliver the therapeutic gene (s) to the tumor mass (
8). Viral and non-viral vectors are two subdivisions of delivery systems (
9). The efficiency of the vector that can selectively deliver a gene to target cells with minimal toxicity is a success in gene therapy. An efficient method in gene transfection is using viral carriers although there would be a risk of not being biologically safe. Therefore, using non-viral delivery systems became an attractive alternative for humans, which received increasing attention in gene therapy. These vectors can overcome major issues of viral delivery toxicity. The non-viral carriers are easy to prepare and exhibit low cytotoxicity and they can also carry large DNA fragments. However, finding a carrier will (1) load genetic materials, (2) pass the material through cellular barriers without an immune response, (3) release it into the cell nucleus, and (4) allow the visualization of this entire process without degrading the materials remains a great challenge (
7). The short-lived nature of the therapeutic DNA and the multifactorial nature of many disorders are also affecting the effectiveness of gene therapy (
10). Nanoparticles were first developed in about 1970 and initially designed as carriers for vaccines and anticancer drugs (
11). The first important step in the strategy of drug targeting was to reduce the uptake of the nanoparticles by the reticuloendothelial system (RES) to enhance tumor uptake (
12). In this regard, coating nanoparticles (NPs) and nano-capsules with hydrophilic substances such as polypropylene block copolymers (poloxamers), chitosan, polyvinyl alcohol, and PEG have a clear benefit with minimal non-specific interaction with other proteins (
12). While surface charges, molecular weight, amphiphilicity, shape, and the structure of NPs are very important in gene transfection efficiency of polymer-based NPs (
10). Several cationic polymers such as poly L-lysine (PLL), polyethyleneimine (PEI), poly (amidoamine) (PAMAM), and chitosan are used as important vectors for gene delivery (
10). For these reasons, a systematic review of the literature was carried out to evaluate the conventional cancer therapy methods compared to novel ones (e.g., gene therapy), especially on brain tumors.