Advances of Nanomaterials in Cancer Photocatalysis Therapy

Abstract

Malignant tumours have become one of the most serious diseases threatening human health, and their incidence is increasing every year. Improving the effectiveness of treatment for this disease is an important research topic in the related interdisciplinary fields of medicine, pharmacy and chemistry. Traditional therapies for tumours mainly include chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, but these methods have shortcomings such as insufficient efficacy, low specificity and serious side effects, and thus the therapeutic effect is not satisfactory. In recent years, the emerging tumour therapies have made great progress, such as photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) which possess the advantages of high efficacy, good selectivity and few side effects. Nanomaterial-based photocatalysis agents have attracted much attention in the field of PTT/PDT therapy due to the high photoconversion efficiency, easy modification, high tumour selectivity and good biocompatibility. In this review, we briefly summarize and introduce the advances of common photothermal agents and photosensitizer in tumor photocatalysis therapy in recent years, including noble nanomaterials, semiconductor nanomaterials, carbon-based nanomaterials and polymer-based nanomaterials. Furthermore, the challenges of photothermal agents, photosensitizers and PTT/PDT combined therapy in antitumour therapy applications are discussed. It is believed that the development of photothermal agents and photosensitizer with high tissue penetration capacity, high photothermal efficiency and safety will have a promising future in clinical photocatalysis tumour therapy.