Review on iron nanoparticles for cancer theranostics: synthesis, modification, characterization and applications

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Although standard strategies such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy have shown to be successful for cancer treatment, their effectiveness can be limited. Due to their physicochemical properties, nanoparticles can be used to overcome the drawbacks apparent from conventional cancer treatments, with a wide variety of specialized treatment options and active targeting strategies available for treating tumors. This review focuses on iron nanoparticles as promising cancer therapy and imaging nano-agents and on the main synthesis and modification techniques available for constructing these nanoparticles for cancer. A discussion on different types of iron nanoparticles for cancer theranostics is provided to demonstrate the variety of imaging modalities and therapies available.