Micro-Nanomaterials for Tumor Microwave Hyperthermia: Design, Preparation, and Application

Cancer hyperthermia is attracting much attention in basic science and clinics. Among the hyperthermia techniques, microwave (MW) heating is most commonly used for cancer treatment. It offers highly competitive advantages: faster heat generation from microwave radiation, less susceptibility to heat up local tissues, maneuverability, and depth of penetration in tissues and capability of killing tumor cells. Although the encouraging clinical results are being collected, MW hyperthermia has its own challenges, such as inaccurate targeting and low selectivity, which lead to damage to the surrounding vital organs and tissues. To address these issues, this review aims to introduce micronanomaterials as promising agents for receiving the electromagnetic wave, which should be beneficial for improving the efficacy of MW hyperthermia.

We have searched many peer-reviewed papers in medical and chemical material databases about micro-nanomaterials for tumor microwave hyperthermia. Distinguishing features and important progresses are introduced in this review.

One hundred and forty papers were chosen and included in this review. Four parts were described, including hyperthermia techniques and the application of micro-nanomaterials, microwave thermal therapy and treatment principle, microwave absorbing micro-nanomaterials, the preparation and application of micro-nanomaterials in microwave thermal therapy.

We review the most recent literatures on micro-nanomaterials-based MW heating strategies for cancer treatment, with the aim to give the reader an overview of the state-of-the-art of MW hyperthermia therapy. The future of MW responsive materials will also be discussed, including combination of imaging probes and targeting moieties.