Noble metal NPs for cancer therapy. Once the tumor is directly connected to the main blood circulation system, NPs can exploit several characteristics of the newly formed vasculature and efficiently target tumors. Tumor cells are supplied by blood capillaries that perfuse the cells of the tissue where NPs can (i) passively accumulate or (ii) anchor through targeting moieties to biomarkers overexpress by tumor cells. NPs can act simultaneously as therapeutic agents, inducing hyperthermia, enhancing radiotherapy, silencing genes, and/or delivering drugs to induce tumor cell death, and as imaging enhancers or contrast agents, to help tracking the therapeutic effects in real time.
