Potentiation of Thermal Ablation in Cancer Therapy Using Nanomaterials

Cancer is one of the major global causes of mortality with ten million deaths reported in the year 2021. Conventional treatment strategies of cancer include surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. However, these treatment approaches are associated with drawbacks such as resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs, inaccessibility to the tumor site, and proximity to other tumors. Hence, novel technologies are needed for effective treatment and prevention of relapse, deaths related to cancer. Application of external electromagnetic waves and hyperthermic sources are being used in cancer therapy to discard damaged tissue or cells, by thermal ablation. This method provides advantages over the conventional methods as it is flexible, economical, and minimally invasive. Current heating methods being used for cancer therapy are not efficient enough to differentiate between tumor cells and healthy cells and that may lead to damage of neighboring cells. Therefore, supplementation of thermal ablation by various nanomaterials such as magnetic and gold nanoparticles, nanocomposites, nanoshells, nanorods, carbon nanotubes, and other different types of nanoparticles can maximize the heating efficiency of thermal ablation at tumor site. This chapter covers various applications of nanomaterials used in combination with tumor ablation methods for enhancement in cancer therapeutics.