Promise of gold nanomaterials as a lung cancer theranostic agent: a systematic review

Abstract

Lung cancer is considered to be the second most prevalent form of cancer in the world and is associated with high mortality rates. Early diagnosis and targeted therapies for lung cancer can significantly extend patient survival. However, traditional strategies for lung cancer diagnosis lack sensitivity and selectivity. Additionally, available conventional drugs are losing their therapeutic potential due to side effects and the development of drug resistance. To overcome these drawbacks, there is an urgency to develop new potent theranostic agents to detect and combat cancer at an early stage. Recently, intensive progress has been made in the development and biomedical application of nanomaterials in cancer diagnosis, detection, and treatment. Gold nanomaterials (GNMs) have drawn considerable attention as a nano-theranostic agent due to their unique and tunable physical features. Therefore, this review aims to systematically analyze the efficiency of GNMs as a lung cancer theranostic agent. Published articles related to the study were selected from three popular electronic online databases including PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science. Studied articles (n = 61) demonstrated that GNMs modified with photosensitive agents, miRNA, antibodies, peptides, conventional chemotherapeutic drugs, and other biomolecules improved the efficacy and efficiency of traditional diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to combat lung cancer. Surface-modified GNMs can be used as reliable, accurate, sensitive, and cheap lung cancer detection tools, as well as potent selective cytotoxic agents.