Advances in gold nanoparticle technology as a tool for diagnostics and treatment of cancer

Cancer is one of the world’s leading causes of death. The World Health Organization projects the number of global cancer-related deaths to reach 12 million by 2030. Therefore, there is a constant need to improve cancer diagnosis and treatment tools at an early stage. Current therapies employed for cancer treatment include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Effective as they may be, these therapies exhibit certain drawbacks and side effects such as the damage of healthy tissues, fatigue, anemia, associated infections, hair loss, extensive duration and expense of treatment. To counter these limitations, it is essential to develop novel anticancer weapons with early tumor detection, effective diagnosis and personalized treatment for different cancer types. In recent years, nanomaterials have become a center of interest for cancer therapeutics. Due to their small size and tunable physicochemical properties, nanoparticles can establish extensive interactions with biomolecules, both on the surface and within cancer cells. This high interaction capacity holds the promise of revolutionizing cancer care. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) stand out as an up-and-coming agent in cancer diagnostics and treatment due to their high biocompatibility, minimal toxicity, excellent penetration into cancer tissues, and most importantly, their non-immunogenic nature in the human body. Besides, GNPs have unique physical and chemical properties that confer special benefits, such as nanoscale, surface, quantum, electrical and optical effects. Moreover, GNPs can be easily synthesized, with controlled size and morphology and many available surface modifications. Surface modifications of GNPs have been exploited to attach targeting ligands, imaging labels, therapeutic drugs and various other functionalities [Citation2]. So far, GNPs have been explored for cancer-related applications by different novel approaches, comprising targeted drug delivery, gene delivery, bioimaging, enhanced radiation therapy, diagnostics and light induction therapy. Various shapes of GNPs have been developed to meet the specific cancer needs, such as nanoclusters, nanocages, nanobranches, nanopyramids, nanoflowers, nanorods, nanoshells, nanoplates, nanostars, nanocubes, etc [Citation3]. The following sections will highlight several key areas where GNPs made the most crucial contributions to cancer diagnostics and treatment.