Polyphosphoester-Based Nanocarrier for Combined Radio-Photothermal Therapy of Breast Cancer

Recently, clinical research on tumor therapy has gradually shifted from traditional monotherapy toward combination therapy as tumors are complex, diverse and heterogeneous. Combination therapy may be essential for achieving the optimized treatment efficacy of tumors through distinct tumor-inhibiting mechanisms. At the same time, nanocarriers are emerging as an excellent strategy for delivering both drugs simultaneously. This work presents utilization of a polyphosphoester-based nanocarrier (NPIR/Cur) to achieve the codelivery of hydrophobic photothermal agent IR-780 and radiosensitizer curcumin (Cur). The IR-780 and curcumin coencapsulated NPIR/Cur exhibited adequate drug loading, a prolonged blood half-life, enhanced passive tumor homing, improved curcumin bioavailability, as well as combined therapeutic functions. Briefly, NPIR/Cur could not only achieve effective thermal ablation through the conversion of near-infrared light to heat but also give rise to a significant boosted local radiation dose to tr...