Nanomedicines: an update of diagnostic and therapeutic applications in multiple cancers

Cancer remains a major global health challenge, with existing diagnostic and therapeutic strategies often limited by poor selectivity, systemic toxicity and resistance. Nanomedicine - a convergence of nanotechnology and molecular medicine - offers promising solutions to these limitations by enabling more precise cancer diagnosis and effective treatment. Engineered nanoparticles (NPs) such as liposomes, polymeric micelles, dendrimers and metallic NPs have been widely studied for their ability to deliver therapeutic agents or genetic materials directly to tumours. NPs can exploit the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect for passive targeting and can be further functionalised with ligands for active targeting of tumour-specific markers such as EGFR, HER2 or folate receptors. In diagnostics, nanoprobes and nanobiosensors enable high-resolution imaging modalities including MRI, PET and optical imaging, allowing early tumour detection and real-time monitoring. Moreover, multifunctional theranostic NPs integrate both therapeutic and diagnostic functions in a single platform. Recent innovations also include nanocarriers for RNA interference, CRISPR-Cas9 delivery and stimuli-responsive drug release. Additionally, NPs are being explored for photothermal therapy (PTT) and radio-sensitisation to further enhance treatment outcomes. This review summarises recent progress in nanomedicine applications across multiple cancer types - lung, breast, brain, liver and gastrointestinal - and correlates these developments with tumour biology and microenvironmental factors.