387
Views
0
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Perspective

Nanoparticles: Heating Tumors to Death?

, &
Pages 99-109 | Published online: 23 Dec 2010
 

Abstract

Thermotherapy consisting of heating tumors to death appears to be a suitable method to achieve tumor ablation in a noninvasive manner with minimal side effects but developments were hampered because of the lack of specificity of the heating method. New interests have emerged by introducing nanoparticles as energy absorbent agents in tumor tissue to locally enhance the action of irradiation, hence increasing the specificity of the method. Mechanisms of tumor death depend on the nature of the nanoparticles and irradiation modalities. They can be induced either by heat-dependant or by heat-independent phenomena. As discussed in this article, it can reasonably be expected that the recent methods of thermotherapy developed with nanoparticles have a tremendous potential for cancer treatments. However, overcoming challenging milestones is now required before the method will be ready for the treatment of a wide range of cancers.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.