title: Nanoscale theranostics for physical stimulus-responsive cancer therapies.
abstract: Physical stimulus-responsive therapies often employing multifunctional theranostic agents responsive to external physical stimuli such as light, magnetic field, ultra-sound, radiofrequency, X-ray, etc., have been widely explored as novel cancer therapy strategies, showing encouraging results in many pre-clinical animal experiments. Unlike conventional cancer chemotherapy which often accompanies with severe toxic side effects, physical stimulus-responsive agents usually are non-toxic by themselves and would destruct cancer cells only under specific external stimuli, and thus could offer greatly reduced toxicity and enhanced treatment specificity. In addition, physical stimulus-responsive therapies can also be combined with other traditional therapeutics to achieve synergistic anti-tumor effects via a variety of mechanisms. In this review, we will summarize the latest progress in the development of physical stimulus-responsive therapies, and discuss the important roles of nanoscale theranostic agents involved in those non-conventional therapeutic strategies.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123 Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Hengte
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ke
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Zhifei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China. Electronic address: zliu@suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhuang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy / Q000379:methods; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000737:chemistry; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D008027:Light; D008280:Magnetics; D051379:Mice; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D010778:Photochemotherapy / Q000379:methods; D013696:Temperature; D000068936:Theranostic Nanomedicine / Q000379:methods*; D014465:Ultrasonics
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D003287:Contrast Media
keywords: Cancer therapies; Physical stimulus; Theranostics