Multifunctional Gallium Nanorods‐Embedded Calcium Alginate/Silk Fibroin Microspheres for Tumor Therapy: Integrating Embolization, Photothermal Therapy, Chemotherapy, and Imaging

Embolization is a crucial clinical technique in interventional therapy to control bleeding and treat tumors and vascular lesions. However, current embolization therapies still present challenges such as limited therapeutic efficacy, the inability to track embolization over time, inadequate drug release, and uncontrollable degradation effects of embolic materials. This study introduces a novel multifunctional embolic microspheres (CA/SF Ga@DOX MS) composed of biodegradable silk fibroin, calcium alginate, and gallium nanorods (Ga NRs) and loaded with doxorubicin(DOX), aiming to enhance the efficacy of tumor embolization through photothermal chemotherapy. CA/SF Ga@DOX MS can target and occlude tumor-feeding vessels, enabling long-term computed tomography (CT) imaging tracking and localization for at least 4 weeks. Upon laser irradiation, the microspheres convert light energy into thermal energy, elevating the tumor site temperature to facilitate photothermal therapy and accelerate DOX release. The multifunctional microspheres integrate multiple therapeutic modalities, overcoming the limitations of conventional embolization and enhancing the efficacy of tumor treatment, offering new possibilities in biomedical applications.