Cancer is a pivotal medical application of nanotechnology. Nano-scale materials provide unlimited advantages of pinpointed diagnosis by molecular detection of tumor microenvironment and targeted molecular therapy in response to pathological stimuli. Since the key concept of utilizing nanotechnology in cancer diagnosis and therapy was conceived a few decades ago, immense research and development efforts have been invested with relatively little successes. This theme issue will overview the current status and key accomplishment in the field as well as offering perspectives and guides for the next generation nanotechnology in cancer imaging and therapy.
Guest editor:
Young Jik Kwon, University of California, Irvine, USA, kwonyj@uci.edu