Current Trends in Cancer Nanotheranostics: Metallic, Polymeric, and Lipid-Based Systems

Abstract

Theranostics has emerged in recent years to provide an efficient and safer alternative in cancer management. This review presents an updated description of nanotheranostic formulations under development for skin cancer (including melanoma), head and neck, thyroid, breast, gynecologic, prostate, and colon cancers, brain-related cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma. With this focus, we appraised the clinical advantages and drawbacks of metallic, polymeric, and lipid-based nanosystems, such as low invasiveness, low toxicity to the surrounding healthy tissues, high precision, deeper tissue penetration, and dosage adjustment in a real-time setting. Particularly recognizing the increased complexity and multimodality in this area, multifunctional hybrid nanoparticles, comprising different nanomaterials and functionalized with targeting moieties and/or anticancer drugs, present the best characteristics for theranostics. Several examples, focusing on their design, composition, imaging and treatment modalities, and in vitro and in vivo characterization, are detailed herein. Briefly, all studies followed a common trend in the design of these theranostics modalities, such as the use of materials and/or drugs that share both inherent imaging (e.g., contrast agents) and therapeutic properties (e.g., heating or production reactive oxygen species). This rationale allows one to apparently overcome the heterogeneity, complexity, and harsh conditions of tumor microenvironments, leading to the development of successful targeted therapies.

Dual Imaging Gold Nanoplatforms for Targeted Radiotheranostics

“…Studies have shown that the synergistic effect of irradiation and gold nanoparticles can lead to a significant tumor reduction. Moreover, the benefit of this combinatory therapy is also strongly dependent on the size, coating, and number of internalized nanoparticles in cancer cells and on the radiation energy [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. A few Gd 3+ -based molecules and particles have also been reported, combining MRI guided imaging with radiosensitization.…”

A Novel Hybrid Nanosystem Integrating Cytotoxic and Magnetic Properties as a Tool to Potentiate Melanoma Therapy

“…Nanotechnology offers innovative tools to solve fundamental problems in cancer management, namely the efficient delivery of drugs to the diseased areas to maximize the therapeutic effect. Lipid-based systems, namely liposomes, are one of the most studied and successful delivery systems, with several examples already approved for use in the clinic, undergoing clinical trials or under preclinical development [36][37][38]. The present study focused on melanoma treatment through a novel hybrid lipid-based nanosystem.…”

Multifunctional Nanocarriers for Lung Drug Delivery

“…Although this is of great importance in cancer, especially at early stages of development, these strategies will not be detailed further, as they are out of the scope of the review. For further reading on this matter, Silva et al (2019) and Mottaghitalab et al (2019) comprise two comprehensive reviews on potential diagnostic strategies [101,102]. Therefore, only works on nanocarriers envisaging therapeutic approaches will be considered.…”