ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the use of nanomaterials as theranostic agents for cancer treatment and imaging, nanoparticles have been extensively investigated for treatment of numerous diseases, ranging from cardiovascular disease to viral infections. While photodynamic therapy and photothermal therapy (PTT) have been studied for cancer therapy, it focuses on the application of theranostic nanoparticles for specifically PTT. The chapter discusses metallic nanoparticles or those nanoparticles that consist of a single metallic core, for their PTT properties. Theranostic agents are nanoparticle platforms that combine both treatment and imaging capabilities into a single nanoparticle-based construct. Many theranostic nanoparticles have been designed for multimodality imaging and treatment. Cancer is a set of diseases that can be characterized by the overactive proliferation and differentiation of abnormal cells. There are several relatively new treatments available for cancer therapy, including immunotherapy, targeted therapies, hormone therapies and stem cell transplants.
