Nanomaterials for the regulation of the tumor microenvironment and theranostics

Abstract

Cancer has become one of the primary threats to human beings, and traditional therapies (including surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy) show limited therapeutic efficacy due to the complexity of tumor biology. Furthermore, determining how to utilize the differences between the tumor microenvironment (TME) and healthy tissues and exploring new nanoplatforms that can realize early diagnosis and effective and non-toxic therapy are challenges in cancer theranostics. Numerous researchers have designed multifunctional nanomaterials and investigated their personalized therapy and regulation abilities toward TME, including oxygen generation, glutathione consumption and the production of reactive oxygen species and multi-model imaging effects. This review will introduce the latest progress in the design of multi-functional nanomedicines for the regulation of TME and their theranostics, and it will provide a critical angle for the future development of nanomedicine.