Title:Nanotheranostics for Diagnosis and Treatment of Breast Cancer
Volume: 29
Issue: 10
Author(s): Parth Patel, Kishore Kumar, Vineet K. Jain, Harvinder Popli, Awesh K. Yadav and Keerti Jain*
Affiliation:
- Department of Pharmaceutics, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) - Raebareli, Lucknow, India
Keywords:
Breast cancer, cancer theranostics, imaging techniques, nanoparticles, nanotheranostic formulations, cancer cells.
Abstract: Recently, breast cancer has reached the highest incident rate amongst all the reported cancers, and
one of its variants, known as triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), is deadlier compared to the other types of
breast cancer due to a lack of feasible diagnostic techniques. Advancements in nanotechnology have paved the
way to formulate several nanocarriers with the ability to deliver anticancer drugs effectively and selectively to
cancer cells with minimum side effects to non-cancerous cells. Nanotheranostics is a novel approach that can
be used in the diagnosis of disease along with therapeutic effects. Currently, various imaging agents, such as organic
dyes, radioactive agents, upconversion nanoparticles, various contrasting agents, quantum dots, etc., are
being explored for the imaging of internal organs or to examine drug distribution. Furthermore, ligand-targeted
nanocarriers, which have the potential to target cancer sites, are being used as advanced agents for cancer theranostic
applications, including the identification of various metastatic sites of the cancerous tumor. This review
article discusses the need for theranostic application in breast cancer with various imaging techniques, the latest
nanotheranostic carriers in breast cancer, and related safety and toxicity issues, as well as highlights the importance
of nanotheranostics in breast cancer, which could be helpful in deciphering questions related to nanotheranostic
systems.