Challangers and Opportunities of Nanoparticle-Based Theranostics in Skin Cancer

Since the 1990s several nanoparticles (NPs) have been developed for applications as diagnostic and therapeutic agents. Diagnostic NPs aim to visualize the disease site. Therapeutic NPs aim to improve the accumulation and release of drugs at the pathological site. The simultaneous combination of these two abilities has been named theranostics. Theranostic NPs applied to cancer detection and therapy can more efficiently monitor the biodistribution and target site accumulation, imaging and quantifying drug release. Skin cancer is the most common form of malignancy principally in the white population and comprises nonmelanocytic skin cancers, such as basal cell carcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas, and melanoma. In this chapter, we report the main NPs used for imaging and therapy of skin cancers, the latest data about nanoparticle-based theranostics of these diseases, and the use of nanovehicles for the drug transdermal delivery.