Magnetic nanoparticle-based cancer therapy

Nanoparticles (NPs) with easily modified surfaces have been playing an important role in biomedicine. As cancer is one of the major causes of death, tremendous efforts have been devoted to advance the methods of cancer diagnosis and therapy. Recently, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) that are responsive to a magnetic field have shown great promise in cancer therapy. Compared with traditional cancer therapy, magnetic field triggered therapeutic approaches can treat cancer in an unconventional but more effective and safer way. In this review, we will discuss the recent progress in cancer therapies based on MNPs, mainly including magnetic hyperthermia, magnetic specific targeting, magnetically controlled drug delivery, magnetofection, and magnetic switches for controlling cell fate. Some recently developed strategies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) monitoring cancer therapy and magnetic tissue engineering are also addressed.