Chapter 6 - Magnetic nanoparticles and cancer

Abstract

Cancer, being the number one cause of death, is a disease that becomes even more widespread as the population’s life expectancy increases. Chemotherapy drugs that are designed to destroy the cancer cells, inevitably kill also the healthy cells. Without being targeted or controlled release, these drugs are administered in high doses which make them highly toxic. Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are currently being investigated for their versatile use in drug targeting, therapy, and diagnostics. In this chapter the toxicity of magnetic particles and types of MNPs and their synthesis methods are shortly summarized. As different types of MNPs are employed in this research field, we focused the chapter to magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles. Research in the field of magnetic drug delivery is summarized based on the type of magnetic carrier. Hyperthermia, which is the destruction or reduction of tumor by procuring heat at the tumor site, can be achieved by the application of an external magnetic field, inducing heat generation around the MNPs. This makes MNPs invaluable in cancer therapy, and the type of MNPs along with suitable coatings and targeting ligands used in hyperthermia are summarized. Cancer diagnostics is another field where MNPs find diverse use. MNPs are employed as contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), not only to image the existing tumors but also for post therapy monitoring in stem cell transplantation. By summarizing the work done in this field, MNPs, with ease of surface modification, low toxicity, and magnetic properties are shown to have great potential in novel therapies against cancer.