Carbon Nanotubes-Based Anticancer Nanomedicine

Advancement in the field of nanotechnology has extended the applications of nanoparticles to therapy. Novel nanoparticles with tuneable physical and chemical properties are being synthesized and functionalized with bioactive agents in order to ensure targeted delivery, sustained release, and long-term effects for many diseases, including cancer. It is estimated that around 9.6 million deaths worldwide in 2018 were associated with cancer. However, the existing conventional therapeutic approaches that include chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery are not fruitful and have severe side effects and the possibility of recurrence. Although various metal, metal oxide, magnetic, and polymeric nanoparticles exist, non-metallic carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have gained wide attention for their superior role in the management and treatment of cancer. In this chapter, multimodal therapeutic aspects of CNTs are covered in detail that includes photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, combined phototherapy, chemo-photothermal therapy, immune-photothermal therapy, sonodynamic therapy, and chemo-sonodynamic therapy. Further, this chapter emphasizes the promises of CNTs-based anticancer therapeutic strategy for enhancement of both efficacy and specificity of the cancer treatment in addition to the significant reduction of the adverse effects. Finally, the scope of introducing CNTs as the next-generation nanomedicine for non-invasive targeted eradication of cancer is discussed herewith. However, detailed toxicity studies and clinical trials would be required before functionalized CNTs are translated as candidate anticancer drugs.