Nanotechnology: a promising method for oral cancer detection and diagnosis

Abstract

Oral cancer is a common and aggressive cancer with high morbidity, mortality, and recurrence rate globally. Early detection is of utmost importance for cancer prevention and disease management. Currently, tissue biopsy remains the gold standard for oral cancer diagnosis, but it is invasive, which may cause patient discomfort. The application of traditional noninvasive methods-such as vital staining, exfoliative cytology, and molecular imaging-is limited by insufficient sensitivity and specificity. Thus, there is an urgent need for exploring noninvasive, highly sensitive, and specific diagnostic techniques. Nano detection systems are known as new emerging noninvasive strategies that bring the detection sensitivity of biomarkers to nano-scale. Moreover, compared to current imaging contrast agents, nanoparticles are more biocompatible, easier to synthesize, and able to target specific surface molecules. Nanoparticles generate localized surface plasmon resonances at near-infrared wavelengths, providing higher image contrast and resolution. Therefore, using nano-based techniques can help clinicians to detect and better monitor diseases during different phases of oral malignancy. Here, we review the progress of nanotechnology-based methods in oral cancer detection and diagnosis.

Early Detection and Multidisciplinary Approach to Oral Cancer Patients

“…Preventive medicine acts as a unique control for oral cancers and also charges at all-time low costs to states across the world [2,15]. In this way, many actions can be taken by health organizations, especially by the World Health Organization in the risky geographic regions of the world [28].…”

“…Many types of oral lesions have malignant transformation potential, aptly named premalignant or precancerous lesions. Premalignant lesions are described by using clinical, pathological, histochemical, and also many other screening techniques for which lesions such as leukoplakia, lichen planus with oral and cutaneous form, erythroplakia, stomatitis nicotina, and submucous fibrosis are named or classified [3,10,15,18,22,[33][34][35]. In addition, there is less malign transformation potential in lesions such as discoid lupus erythematosus and also a lesser likelihood of malignant transformation in hereditary entities such as epidermolysis bullosa and dyskeratosis congenita [34].…”

“…The most histological type of carcinoma is squamous cell carcinoma, seen in the oral and oropharyngeal region with 90% [3,7,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. The histological variants of squamous cell carcinomas are revealed in the literature to be adenosquamous, verrucous squamous, basaloid squamous, and papillary squamous cell carcinomas.…”

“…It can be caught in stages of cancer as early as stages I and II [10]. In addition, nanotechnology has started to see its use in diagnosing oral cancer [15]. Besides this, biomarkers were suggested to be used in detecting the malign transformation potential of premalignant lesions such as oral leukoplakia [22].…”

Recent progress in nanotechnology-based novel drug delivery systems in designing of cisplatin for cancer therapy: an overview

“…Nanomedicine is an emerging branch of nanotechnology that is mainly used for targeted delivery of anti-cancer drugs for numerous types of cancers [1]. Nanocarrier-based delivery of several anti-cancer drugs has gained more attention in the past decades because of its selective targeting, improved drug efficacy, lower systemic toxicity, cellular uptake and accumulation inside the tumour, particularly on the improvement of the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect [2].…”