Abstract
Nanomedicine is a rapidly growing field that uses nanomaterials for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of various diseases, including cancer. Various biocompatible nanoplatforms with diversified capabilities for tumor targeting, imaging, and therapy have materialized to yield individualized therapy. However, due to their unique properties brought about by their small size, safety concerns have emerged as their physicochemical properties can lead to altered pharmacokinetics, with the potential to cross biological barriers. In addition, the intrinsic toxicity of some of the inorganic materials (i.e., heavy metals) and their ability to accumulate and persist in the human body has been a challenge to their translation. Successful clinical translation of these nanoparticles is heavily dependent on their stability, circulation time, access and bioavailability to disease sites, and their safety profile. This review covers preclinical and clinical inorganic-nanoparticle based nanomaterial utilized for cancer imaging and therapeutics. A special emphasis is put on the rational design to develop non-toxic/safe inorganic nanoparticle constructs to increase their viability as translatable nanomedicine for cancer therapies.
Highlights
The World Health Organization estimates 9.6 million people died from cancer in 2018
The increasing need for novel therapeutics has led to dramatic growth in the development of therapeutics and imaging agents based on inorganic-based nanoparticles, such as gold, silica, iron oxide, copper, zinc, bismuth, gadolinium, etc
A special emphasis is put on the rational design to develop non-toxic/safe inorganic nanoparticle constructs to increase their viability as translatable nanomedicine for cancer therapies
Summary
The World Health Organization estimates 9.6 million people died from cancer in 2018. That is one in six deaths, which makes it the second leading cause of death worldwide [1]. A major challenge in effectively treating cancer is its intratumor heterogeneity brought about by mutations as the disease progresses. These considerable variations among tumors can lead to different responses to a given treatment and may lead to ineffective killing of particular subclonal populations [3,4]. Nanomedicine, which is the application of nanotechnology to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, offers to address shortcomings of conventional treatment in cancer through various biocompatible nanoplatforms with diversified capabilities for tumor targeting, imaging, and therapy. A special emphasis is put on the rational design to develop non-toxic/safe inorganic nanoparticle constructs to increase their viability as translatable nanomedicine for cancer therapies
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
