ABSTRACT
Cancer is one of the most destructive diseases in human history. Studies have shown that early diagnosis can often lead to better prognosis; it can also enable better management of treatment costs, which to many patients are often prohibitive. This increases the need for the development of new techniques for cancer diagnosis or modification of existing techniques, to improve their accuracy while reducing their toxicity and side effects. Recent developments in nanotechnology have been aimed at resolving these problems by synthesizing new non-toxic nanoparticles and developing new methods of functionalization. The rise of the new field of theranostics that combines both diagnosis and therapy has led to increased interest in the applications of nanotechnology in cancer treatment. In this review, we aim to shed light on current developments in the application of nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis, especially in the fields of cancer imaging, with highlight on biosynthesized nanoparticles.
