Photothermal Therapy: A New Approach to Eradicate Cancer

Abstract

: The use of hyperthermal temperature to treat solid cancers is known as oncological thermal ablation. Thermal ablation is studied as a therapeutic strategy for most cancers and can be used in the control of local and metastatic diseases in addition to traditional anticancer therapies. PTT (photothermal therapy) is a minimally invasive therapeutic approach with a promising diagnostic and cancer prevention potential. The excitation of photosensitizer materials like inorganic and organic nanomaterials with NIR (near-infrared radiation) showed significantly better results than the traditional mode of cancer treatment. The penetration depth of NIR is significantly higher as compared to the U.V. (ultraviolet) and visible light. Photo-excitation of the nanomaterials with NIR efficiently converts light energy into heat energy and eventually enables the cancer cells to die due to heat shock. The addition of a multimodal approach to the treatment and the prevention of cancer cells thermo-resistant properties in localized and distal tumors involves the combination of photothermal agents and chemotherapy. Cancer cell hyperthermic activation prevents DNA repair, cell survival signaling and eventually induces apoptosis. Simultaneously, the release of antigenic peptides from the dead cancer cells activates the immune cells which kill the localized and metastatic cancer cells, hence enabling long-term immunological memory retention. The present review summarizes PTT's functional properties, NIR penetration ability, DNA repair, cellular signaling, and immune system modulation effect of hyperthermia. The benefits of using different types of nanomaterials in PTT applications are further explored. In addition, the problems associated with the use of nanomaterials in PTT applications are also addressed in this article.