Organic Nanoparticles for Cancer Phototherapy

Searching for photothermal agents that can be used for clinical cancer photothermal therapy (PTT) is an important subject in the cancer PTT research field. Compared with inorganic materials, some organic materials with photothermal conversion ability exhibit good biocompatibility and are biodegradable. Therefore, using those biocompatible and biodegradable organic materials as PTT agents has attracted much attention in recent years. In this chapter, semiconducting polymers and small-molecular dye-based nanoscale photothermal agents for cancer PTT were summarized. How to improve the photothermal conversion stability and conversion efficiency of the molecular dyes and thermodynamic therapy were also discussed.