Clinical Applications of Nanosized Drug-Delivery Systems in Lung Cancer Imaging and Therapy

Globally, lung cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed and deadliest types of cancer. Lung cancer imaging can be performed using both invasive and noninvasive techniques, including magnetic resonance, positron emission tomography, single photon emission computed tomography, chest radiography, and computed tomography. But nonspecific contrast agents and radiopharmaceuticals are insufficient for early and specific diagnoses and imaging. In the case of lung cancer therapy, conventional therapeutic agents and radiotherapy may cause severe and systemic adverse and toxic effects and fail to eradicate all tumor tissue. Therefore, formulation of novel, targeted, and specific agents is critically important to overcome these challenges. In this review, we summarize lung cancer classification, current methods for lung cancer imaging and therapy, and future options containing nanosized systems for lung cancer imaging and/or therapy.