Nanocarrier-enabled theranostics advance lung cancer diagnosis and personalized management

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death globally, primarily due to late-stage detection and the insufficient sensitivity of conventional diagnostic methods. Current therapies often struggle with challenges like drug resistance and tumor heterogeneity, necessitating more precise and effective approaches. Nanotechnology offers a transformative solution by providing specialized nanocarriers with superior physicochemical properties, which can overcome the limitations of traditional diagnostics and therapeutics by improving target selectivity and signal intensity. This review explores how these advanced nanoplatforms address critical gaps in early detection, accurate imaging, and targeted treatment for lung cancer.

This review systematically analyzed recent advances in nanocarrier-enabled theranostic strategies for lung cancer. It discussed various nanocarrier types—liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, metallic nanoparticles, quantum dots, and lipid-based nanostructures—highlighting their distinctive physicochemical properties. The review detailed how these nanoplatforms can be modified with tumor-specific ligands, antibodies, or peptides like RGD peptide and melittin to facilitate molecular detection of lung cancer biomarkers (EGFR, KRAS, PD-L1). It also examined the integration of nanocarrier-based imaging systems with modalities such as MRI, CT, PET, and fluorescence imaging for real-time tumor visualization.