Nanomaterials for combined thermo-chemotherapy of cancer

Abstract

Despite significant advances during the last decades, chemotherapy still suffers from important drawbacks such as severe side effects, insufficient drug availability in the tumor tissue, and multidrug resistance. Thermal sensitization can potentiate the effect of chemotherapy, resulting in a more efficient cancer treatment. In this regard, the combined approach of hyperthermia and nanomaterials is especially promising, as nanotechnology offers the possibility to construct multifunctional nanoplatforms for active targeting, drug delivery, and therapy. In this chapter, we discuss several examples from the recent literature on the use of magnetic and plasmonic (gold and carbon-based) nanomaterials for thermo-chemotherapy, highlighting the synergistic effects of the combined approach. We conclude with a short discussion on the future challenges in the field in order to address the translational aspects of this new potential therapeutic solution.