Semiconducting Polymer Nanoparticles as Activatable Nanomedicines for Combinational Phototherapy

Phototherapy including photodynamic therapy and photothermal therapy provides an alternative pathway for cancer therapy. However, single-mode phototherapy suffers from low therapeutic efficiency; therefore, other therapeutic modalities are often combined to enhance the antitumor effect. In this review, we summarize the recent progress of semiconducting polymer nanoparticle (SPN) based activatable nanomedicines for combinational cancer therapy. With ideal optical properties, SPNs function not only as drug carriers but also as phototherapeutic agents (photodynamic or photothermal). Under the internal (such as acidic pH, ROS, and hypoxia) or external stimuli (such as light), SPN-based activatable nanomedicines can be specifically activated to release therapeutic agents at tumor sites, which reduces off-target probabilities and thus enhances the biosafety of the nanomedicine.