Diversified strategies based on nanoscale metal-organic frameworks for cancer therapy: The leap from monofunctional to versatile

Owing to the growing risk of cancer to human health in recent decades, various strategies to treat cancer have been developed. Traditional strategies including chemotherapy and radiotherapy have been widely employed in cancer treatment with wonderful performance. However, there is an urgent need for novel methods to address the serious side effects of traditional treatment methods. As a rising nanomaterial, nanoscale metal-organic frameworks (NMOFs) have various practical applications in cancer therapy because of their advantages, such as tunable chemical compositions, crystalline structures, and high porosity. For their nanoscale size, NMOFs have better long-term biodegradability and lower toxicity to normal tissue. These superior characteristics contributed to their applications in photodynamic therapy (PDT), photothermal therapy (PTT), and chemodynamic therapy (CDT). Herein, diversified strategies based on metal-organic frameworks for cancer therapy were reviewed. First, the preparation approaches of MOFs and the MOFs-based monofunctional strategies for cancer therapy including drug carrier, chemodynamic therapy, radiotherapy, photothermal therapy, and immunotherapy were summarized. Thereafter, the diversified MOFs-based combined strategies such as PDT/CDT, enzyme cascade catalysis in CDT, immunotherapy/CDT/PDT were described. Finally, the challenges associated with MOFs in successful clinical translation were discussed.