Abstract:
Cancer being one of the most precarious and second most fatal diseases evokes opportunities for multimodal
delivery platforms which will act synergistically for efficient cancer treatment. Multifunctional iron oxide
magnetic nanoparticles (IONPs) are being studied for few decades and still attracting increasing attention for
several biomedical applications owing to their multifunctional design and intrinsic magnetic properties that
provide a multimodal theranostic platform for cancer therapy, monitoring and diagnosis. The review article aims
to provide brief information on various surface chemistries involved in modulating IONPs properties to exhibit
potential therapy in cancer treatment. The review addresses structural, magnetic, thermal and optical properties
of IONPs which aids in the fabrication of efficient multimodal nanoplatform in cancer therapy. The review
discussed the pharmacokinetics of IONPs and attributes influencing them. This review inculcates recent advancements in therapies, focused on tumor-microenvironment-responsive and targeted therapy along with their
eminent role in cancer diagnosis. The concept of stimuli-responsive including endogenous, exogenous and dual/
multi stimuli-based delivery platform demonstrated significantly enhanced anticancer therapy. Several therapeutic approaches viz. chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, hyperthermia, gene therapy, sonodynamic
therapy, photothermal, photodynamic-based therapy along with biosensing and several toxicity aspects of IONPs
have been addressed in this review for effective cancer treatment.
