Magnetic nanoparticles: In vivo cancer diagnosis and therapy

Recently, significant research efforts have been devoted to the finding of efficient approaches in order to reduce the side effects of traditional cancer therapy and diagnosis. In this context, magnetic nanoparticles have attracted much attention because of their unique physical properties, magnetic susceptibility, biocompatibility, stability and many more relevant characteristics. Particularly, magnetic nanoparticles for in vivo biomedical applications need to fulfill special criteria with respect to size, size distribution, surface charge, biodegradability or bio-eliminability and optionally bear well selected ligands for specific targeting. In this context, many routes have been developed to synthesize these materials, and tune their functionalities through intriguing techniques including functionalization, coating and encapsulation strategies. In this review article, the use of magnetic nanoparticles for cancer therapy and diagnosis is evaluated addressing potential applications in MRI, drug delivery, hyperthermia, theranostics and several other domains. In view of potential biomedical applications of magnetic nanoparticles, the review focuses on the most recent progress made with respect to synthetic routes to produce magnetic nanoparticles and their salient accomplishments for in vivo cancer diagnosis and therapy.