Nanoparticles as Theranostic Vehicles in Experimental and Clinical Applications—Focus on Prostate and Breast Cancer

Abstract

Prostate and breast cancer are the second most and most commonly diagnosed cancer in men and women worldwide, respectively. The American Cancer Society estimates that during 2016 in the USA around 430,000 individuals were diagnosed with one of these two types of cancers, and approximately 15% of them will die from the disease. In Europe, the rate of incidences and deaths are similar to those in the USA. Several different more or less successful diagnostic and therapeutic approaches have been developed and evaluated in order to tackle this issue and thereby decrease the death rates. By using nanoparticles as vehicles carrying both diagnostic and therapeutic molecular entities, individualized targeted theranostic nanomedicine has emerged as a promising option to increase the sensitivity and the specificity during diagnosis, as well as the likelihood of survival or prolonged survival after therapy. This article presents and discusses important and promising different kinds of nanoparticles, as well as imaging and therapy options, suitable for theranostic applications. The presentation of different nanoparticles and theranostic applications is quite general, but there is a special focus on prostate cancer. Some references and aspects regarding breast cancer are however also presented and discussed. Finally, the prostate cancer case is presented in more detail regarding diagnosis, staging, recurrence, metastases, and treatment options available today, followed by possible ways to move forward applying theranostics for both prostate and breast cancer based on promising experiments performed until today.

Biological Effect of Organically CoatedGrias neuberthiiandPersea americanaSilver Nanoparticles on HeLa and MCF-7 Cancer Cell Lines

“…Since cancer is a world health problem, emerging drug preparations that can pass through tumor barriers and enhance anticancer drug delivery are potentially useful [2]. In this context, a lot of research has been done to synthesize new classes of materials, including those at nanoscale, and test their anticancer properties and/or their application in cancer early detection approaches [3,4]. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely applied in cancer research due to their potent in vitro antitumor effects on cancer cell lines including breast and cervical cancer models [5,6].…”

Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: A Review of Conventional and Advanced Therapeutic Strategies

“…Recently, Fernández Martínez et al [235] published the design of an AI algorithm based on machine learning that was able to help oncologists to detect different TNBC subtypes for optimizing therapeutics. In the near future, a sophisticated AI could feed back different databases such as TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) [236,237] which contains SNP-based platforms, reverse-phase protein array (RPPA), DNA and RNA sequencing among other useful critical information working in conjunction with METABRIC (Molecular Taxonomy of the Breast Cancer International Consortium) [238] to study molecular heterogeneity in various molecular subtypes of breast cancer including TNBC, they could provide valuable Big Data (clinical history, transcriptomic, recurrence, prognosis, treatment, etc.) for oncologist to bring personalized medicine to these patients in a reasonable time.…”

Multifunctional Nanobubbles Carrying Indocyanine Green and Paclitaxel for Molecular Imaging and the Treatment of Prostate Cancer

“…Previous studies have shown that ultrasound molecular imaging provides new ideas for early diagnosis, treatment and e cient monitoring of prostate cancer due to its real-time dynamic imaging, therapeutic controllability and easy operation [4,5]. However, due to the poor sensitivity and speci city of conventional ultrasound in the diagnosis of prostate cancer, the development of an ultrasound contrast agent with good sensitivity and strong contrast is urgent for current research in prostate cancer ultrasound molecular imaging [6]. Near-infrared uorescence imaging has the advantages of real-time imaging, high sensitivity, no ionizing radiation use and reduced cost.…”