This review provides a summary of recent progress in the development of different nano-platforms for the efficient synergistic effect between photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy. In particular, this review focuses on various methods in which photosensitizers and chemotherapeutic agents are co-delivered to the targeted tumor site. In many cases, the photosensitizers act as drug carriers, but this review, also covers different types of appropriate nanocarriers that aid in the delivery of photosensitizers to the tumor site. These nanocarriers include transition metal, silica and graphene-based materials, liposomes, dendrimers, polymers, metal–organic frameworks, nano emulsions, and biologically derived nanocarriers. Many studies have demonstrated various benefits from using these nanocarriers including enhanced water solubility, stability, longer circulation times, and higher accumulation of therapeutic agents/photosensitizers at tumor sites. This review also describes novel approaches from different research groups that utilize various targeting strategies to increase treatment efficacy through simultaneous photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy.

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This study introduces a universal correlation based on the modified version of the Arrhenius equation to estimate the solubility of anti-cancer drugs in supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2). A combination of an Arrhenius-shape term and a departure function was proposed to estimate the solubility of anti-cancer drugs in supercritical CO2. This modified Arrhenius correlation predicts the solubility of anti-cancer drugs in supercritical CO2 from pressure, temperature, and carbon dioxide density. The pre-exponential of the Arrhenius linearly relates to the temperature and carbon dioxide density, and its exponential term is an inverse function of pressure. Moreover, the departure function linearly correlates with the natural logarithm of the ratio of carbon dioxide density to the temperature. The reliability of the proposed correlation is validated using all literature data for solubility of anti-cancer drugs in supercritical CO2. Furthermore, the predictive performance of the modified Arrhenius correlation is compared with ten available empirical correlations in the literature. Our developed correlation presents the absolute average relative deviation (AARD) of 9.54% for predicting 316 experimental measurements. On the other hand, the most accurate correlation in the literature presents the AARD = 14.90% over the same database. Indeed, 56.2% accuracy improvement in the solubility prediction of the anti-cancer drugs in supercritical CO2 is the primary outcome of the current study.