Background:
The potential of Super Paramagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPIONs) as theranostic
agents for cancer has been investigated extensively. SPIONS can be utilized for diagnostic imaging, drug delivery as
well as for therapeutic applications. SPIONS are of particular interest because of their potential for non-invasive
diagnosis and non-invasive therapeutic applications. This article is a review of in vivo and clinical studies of SPIONs
for diagnosis and treatment of breast, ovarian and cervical cancer. The current limitations of this technology with
relation to clinical therapeutic applications and the potential to overcome these limitations are also discussed.
Methods:
NCBI Pubmed was searched for relevant documents by using keyword and MESH based search. The following
keyword combinations were used: ‘breast cancer’ and SPION, ‘ovarian cancer’ and SPION, and ‘cervical
cancer’ and SPION. The resulting list was manually scanned for the studies involving clinical and in vivo studies.
Results:
The 29 most relevant publications were identified and reviewed.
Conclusion:
Although numerous in vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of the
use of SPIONs for both diagnostic and therapeutic applications, there is relatively little progress towards translation
to clinical applications involving breast, ovarian and cervical cancer.