Nanoplasmonics issues for improving cancer treatments

Photothermal therapy (PPT) as well as photodynamic therapy (PDT) are cancer treatments that use light in combination with photosensiting agents or drugs to kill cancer cells. These techniques can be greatly improved if adequately developed within the new paradigms that are emerging from theranostic nanomedicine. Because of their strongly resonant light-absorbing and light-scattering properties that depend on shape, noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) provide a new and powerful tool for innovative light-based approaches, in particular gold NPs, AuNPs. At wavelengths just beyond the visible spectrum in the near-infrared, blood and tissue are maximally transmissive....(continues)