Magnetic Nanomaterials for Therapy

This chapter discusses the magnetic nanomaterials used for medical therapy, from their fundamental mechanisms to the clinically relevant applications including imaging‐guided therapy, magnetic hyperthermia, targeted drug‐ and gene‐delivery systems, and manipulation of cellular functions. It covers a discussion of all the major therapeutic platforms such as chemotherapy, photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, and combinatorial therapy that can be guided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to improve their treatment efficiency. Low therapeutic efficiency and severe side effects in patients are the two major problems in currently existing chemotherapy. Due to their magnetic resonance (MR) contrasting capability, magnetic nano‐particles have been intensively investigated for their use in imaging‐guided therapy including chemotherapy. The chapter focuses on the description of hyperthermia in medical applications using magnetic nanomaterials, ranging from thermal ablation, apoptotic hyperthermia, and hyperthermia‐controlled drug release. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the recent advances in prediction of therapeutic nanomedicine efficacy using magnetic nanoparticles.