Synthetic Phage for the Detection of Cancer

Lung, colorectal, and liver cancers represent the predominant causes of global cancer mortality, accounting for a major disease burden. Despite advancements in chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, clinical efficacy remains constrained by off-target cytotoxicity, multidrug resistance, and treatment-associated costs. These limitations underscore the need for biocompatible, target-specific, and economically viable diagnostic and therapeutic alternatives. This chapter provides an in-depth technical overview of synthetic bacteriophages as modular nanobiotechnological tools for precision oncology. It elaborates on phage biology, structural organization, and replication cycles (lytic, lysogenic, and extrusion), and discusses their molecular reengineering into programmable nanocarriers. Core technologies include phage display systems utilizing coat proteins pIII and pVIII, biopanning for tumor-specific ligand selection, and integration into advanced diagnostic platforms such as phage-mediated immuno-PCR (PD-IPCR), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and quantum-dot fluorescence biosensors. Emerging innovations—Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-engineered phages, cytokine-displaying constructs, and AI-assisted biosensor analytics—are highlighted, alongside dual-display and nanobody-enhanced systems enabling multiplexed biomarker detection. The chapter concludes with insights into translational barriers, biosafety, and regulatory considerations. Collectively, engineered phages constitute a next-generation, programmable, and scalable platform for sensitive, selective, and cost-effective cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.