• Medical Lasers
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2021

In cancer therapy, it is often desirable to use precision medicine that involves treatments of high specificity. One such treatment is the use of photo-triggered theranostic nanoparticles. These nanoparticles make it possible to visualize and treat tumors specifically in a controlled manner with a single injection. Several novel and powerful photo-triggered theranostic nanoparticles have been developed. These range from small organic dyes, semiconducting and biopolymers, to inorganic nanomaterials such as iron-oxide or gold nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, and upconversion nanoparticles. Using photo-triggered theranostic nanoparticles and localized irradiation, complete tumor ablation can be achieved without causing significant toxicity to normal tissue. Given the great advances and promising future of theranostic nanoparticles, this review highlights the progress that has been made in the past couple of years, the current challenges faced and offers a future perspective.