A Critical Review On Nanotechnology: A Technique in Cancer Detection and Prophylaxis

Abstract

In the present scenario, cancer is found to be one of the distressing diseases that accounts for huge number of deaths all around the world. Till now, several conventional treatments like radiation therapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy were available but due to certain restrictions like scarcity of specificity, cytotoxicity and multi-drug resistance which were the major issues that pose the hurdle in successful cancer treatment. Owing the presence of toxicity and resistance to immunity with traditional treatment procedures, some effective technology like nanotechnology is being used to efficiently treat the cancer and reduce the chances of risk. In the past, nanotechnology-based immunotherapeutic agents have been employed to treat cancerous cells by separating normal cells from the target site. With this special feature, nanotechnology might be the ray of hope for rapid, cheap and secured technique for the identification and treatment of cancer cells and cancer biomarkers. This technique involves certain nanomaterials like carbon nanotubes, liposomes and polymeric micelles that help in the formulation of cancer drugs that have been found to have a significant pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic application in the diagnosis and prophylaxis of cancer. In this review, our prime focus is on the utility of nanoparticles (NPs) in cancer diagnosis and prophylaxis. Apart from this, we also discuss about the challenges that hamper the utility of NPs and also give suitable remedial approaches for the same.