Photothermal-chemotherapy: the emerging supramolecular photothermal molecules and the recent advances

Photothermal-chemotherapy (PTCT) is a combined antitumor therapy synergized by both photothermal therapy (PTT) and chemotherapy. Performance of conventional chemotherapy is often limited by the dose-dependent side effect. Besides, a deadlier phenotype of cancer cell, cancer stem cell (CSC), is often accompanied with higher drug resistance. Incomplete removal of cancer cells would cause tumor relapse. PTT relies on photothermal conversion of photothermal agent (PTA) for cancer cell killing. However, hyperthermia induces upregulation of heat shock protein, which provides cancer cell thermotolerance to hinder photothermal therapeutic outcome. Furthermore, the delivery and retention of PTA to deep tumor tissue are challenging. In this chapter, we (1) explain the limitations of chemotherapy and PTT, (2) revisit the common inorganic photothermal materials and introduce the emerging photothermal supramolecular materials, (3) discuss the synergistic effect of PTCT to overcome limitations of chemotherapy and photothermal therapy, (4) highlight several significant strategies to improve therapeutics delivery and target the deadly CSC, and (5) provide our summary and future perspective on PTCT.