Abstract

Lung cancer deaths are the second most cancer-related deaths globally. Despite the advances in understanding lung tumor biology, diagnosis, and treatments, the overall survival rate of lung cancer patients is low. The detection of cancer in the early stage is very vital to be successful in the cancer treatment, which is often hindered by the inherent limitations of the conventional diagnostic methods. The unique lung cancer tumor heterogenicity of each patient, difficulty in diagnosis, and translational challenges in achieving clinical success are the fundamental reasons making the lung cancer treatment hard. Usage of nanotechnology in oncology played an important role in the cancer diagnosis and the treatment. High specificity, sensitivity, and the multiplexed measurement capacity of nanotechnology offers advantages in the detection of the extracellular cancer biomarkers, cancer cells, and in vivo imaging. Conventional therapies in the lung cancer treatment are limited by undesirable toxicities in normal cells and high rate of recurrence and lack of specificity. The unique physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles unlock new avenues to develop novel therapeutic approaches to treat lung cancers which overcome the constraints of the traditional approaches. The availability of extensive surface area per unit volume, tunable electronic, magnetic, optical, biological properties, ease of engineering to have various shapes, sizes, made from diverse materials — lipids, metals, silicates, polymers, carbon — ability to carry both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs, and to improve the drug stability are the nanoparticle characteristics being investigated in many cancer therapies. The exploitation of the nanoparticle properties resulted in many clinically approved nanoparticle formulations. The nanoparticles in cancer are classified as polymeric nanoparticles, metal nanoparticles, drug targeting, target moieties, and stimulus responsive. Nano-theranostics is the science of integration of both diagnosis and therapeutic applications of nanoparticles, which combines the advantages of both therapeutic and diagnostic worlds. All the research efforts utilizing the nanoparticle technology in lung cancer treatment will enhance the health of the people.