One of the most significant challenges in the diagnosis of brain cancer is efficient in vivo imaging using nontoxic nanoprobes. Core-shell gold nanorod@MIL-88(Fe) nanostars are successfully constructed as triple-modality imaging (computed tomography/magnetic-resonance imaging/photoacoustic imaging) nanoprobes that show low cytotoxicity, high contrast, high penetration depth, and high spatial resolution for accurate and noninvasive imaging and diagnosis of gliomas.

Difficulties in the highly sensitive detection of tumour microfoci represent a critical obstacle toward improved surgical intervention in liver cancer. Conventional preoperative imaging methods and surgeons’ subjective experience are limited by their inability to effectively detect tumour lesions measuring less than 2 mm; however, intraoperative fluorescence molecular imaging may overcome this limitation. Here, we synthesised an arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD)-conjugated mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN) highly loaded with indocyanine green (ICG) dye that could accurately delineate liver cancer margins and provide excellent tumour-to-normal tissue contrast intraoperatively. The increased ICG loading capacity and tumour specificity enabled the identification of residual microtumours and satellite lesions measuring less than 1 mm in living mice. Histological analysis validated the sensitivity and accuracy of this approach. We believe this technique utilising a new fluorescent nanoprobe with intraoperative optical imaging may offer a more sensitive and accurate method for liver cancer resection guidance, resulting in better surgical outcomes.