Nanotechnological strategies for prostate cancer imaging and diagnosis

The high incidence rates and complicated subtypes of prostate cancer (PCa) call for the demand of the precise diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Current clinical imaging techniques, such as MRI, CT, and ultrasonography are difficult to accurately detect the early-stage tumor lesions, and biochemical assays or biopsies are invasive and cannot provide sufficient information for the PCa staging and classification. Nanotechnology has the potential to improve the accuracy of current diagnosis strategies by targeting specific PCa biomarkers and/or integrating multiple imaging modes. In this review, we briefly introduce current clinical PCa imaging strategies and their major limitations, and highlight representative works on nanoparticle-mediated multi-mode imaging strategies. We also discuss the challenges of nanotechnology-based PCa diagnosis, and come up with suggestions and perspectives.[Figure not available: see fulltext.]