Nanoscale metal-organic frameworks and coordination polymers as theranostic platforms for cancer treatment

Both nanoscale metal organic frameworks (NMOFs) with ordered crystalline structure and nanoscale coordination polymers (NCPs) which instead show non-crystalline structure are formed by coordination interactions between inorganic metal ions or clusters with organic bridging ligands. NMOFs and NCPs have shown great potential in the field of biomedicine in recent years, owning to their unique advantages including inherent biodegradability, the mesoporous structure to enable loading of various therapeutic or imaging molecules, as well as diverse compositions in both metal ions and organic ligands to render them multiple functionalities in a single system. In this review article, the synthesis and modification strategies of NMOFs/NCPs, together with their applications in drug delivery, biomedical imaging and various types of cancer therapies will be summarized. In addition to reviewing the latest advances in this rapid growing direction, the future prospects of applying NMOFs/NCPs for cancer theranostics will also be addressed.