Integrating Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine into Cancer Radiotherapy

Nanomedicine and nanotechnology have been long believed to be promising in cancer radiotherapy via multiple mechanisms, including radiosensitization, radioprotection, immunomodulation, and radiation dose enhancement. Enormous endeavours have been invested to develop radiation-oriented nanomedicines, including organic (e.g. liposomes, polymeric micelles) and inorganic (e.g. metal element-containing nanoparticles) nanostructures. In recent years, dramatic development of nanotechnology in augmenting radiotherapy outcomes has been witnessed. However, except a few nanomedicines stepping forward into the clinical trials, the majority still stay in the laboratory and preclinical phase due to biological and/or pharmacokinetic barriers, such as high accumulation in reticuloendothelial system and quick clearance, limited accumulation and heterogeneous distribution in tumor tissues, lack of targeting capability, protein corona-induced inactivation, etc. Without overcoming these barriers, the perspective of radiotherapy-nanomedicine will be nothing more than theoretic.

For this Research Topic, we aim to solicit Original Research and Review articles related to nanomedicine and radiotherapy tackling those barriers mentioned above, as well as novel nanotechnologies/nanomedicines to expand the interaction with radiotherapy.

This Research Topic features the exploration and application of nanotechnology and nanomedicine in the field of radiation oncology, and welcomes interdisciplinary contributions to advance the radiotherapeutic outcomes. Topics of interest include but may not be limited to the following:
• Development of novel nanoparticles for radiosensitization, radioprotection or immunomodulation.
• Establishment of novel protocols or procedures to enhance intratumoral accumulation and decrease reticuloendothelial clearance of nanoparticles.
• Optimization of the combination strategy between nanomedicine and radiotherapy.
• Development of nanotechology-based imaging methodologies for real-time evaluation of radiotherapy outcomes.
• Investigation of the radiation-guided controlled delivery and release of nanomedicine.


Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.