Micelle-Enabled Photothermal Therapy for Cancer Treatment

Cancer is a major cause of death around the world. Due to late-stage diagnosis and high recurrence rates, standard treatments such as surgical removal, chemotherapy and radiotherapy have limited efficiency. These methods are non-targeted and there is a strong need for targeted and non-invasive medical methods. Nanotechnology plays an important role in developing new treatment methods because of adjustable physical properties, high surface area, and their capability to sense changes in tumor environments. One of these new treatments is phototherapy. Photothermal therapy (PTT) is one field of phototherapy that works independent from oxygen and enable to treat tumor hypoxia and increase light penetration and it uses photothermal agents to create heat from NIR light which causes tumor cell death while protecting surrounding healthy tissue. Polymeric micelles are one of the nanocarriers used in photothermal therapy. Due to their core-shell structure, they can deliver hydrophobic drugs and photosensitive agents while improving drug solubility, increasing tumor delivery and decreasing side effects.

کلیدواژه ها:

Cancer ، Photothermal therapy ، Micelle