Diagnostic Imaging in Cancer Therapy with Magnetic Nanoparticles

The unfavorable application-to-tumor-dose-ratio is a drawback of conventional systemic chemotherapy, implying an often insufficient drug dose in the tumor being associated with severe side effects for the patient. The use of chemotherapeutics bound to magnetic nanoparticles offers several advantages. On the one hand it is possible to concentrate the chemotherapeutics in the tumor region by the use of magnetic fields, like it is done in Magnetic Drug Targeting (MDT). On the other hand magnetic particles can serve as contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that is bound to the therapeutics. Hence, the particles possibly are opening an insight into drug distribution in the tumor region directly after administration.