Hot-spot empowered gold nanoparticles for theranostics in breast cancer

Breast cancer, being the most prevalent malignant tumor among women, confronts severe challenges in its early detection and precise treatment. Traditional diagnostic approaches have drawbacks in terms of sensitivity and specificity, and are invasive, thereby making it arduous to satisfy practical demands. Nanomedicine has introduced novel diagnostic and therapeutic modalities for breast cancer, particularly gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), which have been utilized on account of their distinctive optical and physicochemical attributes. Hot-spot empowered AuNPs have rapidly emerged and demonstrated significant potential in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. From a technical standpoint, the design and synthesis of AuNPs hot-spot are constantly evolving, ranging from the control of number to the control of structure and efficient control of hot-spot utilizations, establishing a development model of "number-structure-efficient utilization". Hot-spot empowered AuNPs are extensively employed in diagnosis and therapy, facilitating targeted drug delivery, photothermal and photodynamic therapy, and multimodal integration therapy, and also achieving the function of theranostics in an innovative manner. We have deliberated on the challenges and future development prospects of precision medicine for the diagnosis of early breast cancer and individualized treatment.