Degradable multifunctional gold-liposomes as an all-in-one theranostic platform for image-guided radiotherapy.

To improve tumor destruction and minimize adverse effects to healthy tissues, image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) has been developed to allow for the accurate delivery of radiation energy to tumor sites facilitated by real-time imaging. Nevertheless, the current IGRT platform still suffers from the limitation of poor tissue contrast, resulting in the incidental irradiation of healthy tissue. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have been identified as promising candidates to simultaneously improve both radiotherapy and imaging, thereby improving both the accuracy and safety of IGRT.