Inorganic imaging nanoprobes for breast cancer diagnosis

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide, and early diagnosis and screening are vital to its successful treatment. Although medical imaging methods can assist in the early detection of breast cancer, imaging methods that are currently used for clinical diagnosis have drawbacks, such as low sensitivity and accuracy. Contrast agents are often used in diagnostic imaging to address these drawbacks. Nanocontrast agents have attracted considerable attention in recent years due to their unique physicochemical characteristics. Among these agents, inorganic nanoprobes have been substantially developed through improvements in synthesis techniques and pairings with other organic molecules. This paper mainly summarizes the specific applications of inorganic nanoprobes in the magnetic resonance imaging, fluorescence imaging, radionuclide imaging, and bimodal/multimodal imaging of breast cancer.