Nanomaterial-mediated ablation therapy for cancer stem cells

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a small subpopulation of cells that reside inside the tumor and are believed to be causative for tumor initiation, metastasis, and relapse. Due to their specific intrinsic defense mechanisms, CSCs are resistant to conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which leads to treatment failure in the clinic. Recent advances in nanotechnology and materials science have provided many opportunities for cancer therapy, especially nanoparticle-mediated ablation therapies (NMAT), such as photothermal therapy, magnetic hyperthermia therapy, and cryoablation therapy, that have shown promising outcomes in CSC eradication. The procedure of NMAT is minimally invasive and not restricted by resistance mechanism and could be potentially expanded to a broad spectrum of CSCs. Moreover, NMAT could effectively damage deep-tumor CSCs and interfere with the repair of treatment-induced DNA damage. Here, we review representative studies and summarize state-of-the-art NMAT strategies for ablating CSCs and discuss challenges and opportunities in this emerging field.