Quantum Dots for Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy: Biological and Clinical Perspectives

QD = Quantum dot; RES = Reticuloendothelial system; SLN = Sentinel lymph node.

Authors and Disclosures

Hua Zhang,¹ Douglas Yee,² Chun Wang <sup>3

1</sup> University of Minnesota Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. zhang334@umn.edu
² University of Minnesota Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. yeexx006@umn.edu
³ University of Minnesota Cancer Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, 7-116 Hasselmo Hall, 312 Church Street, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. wangx504@umn.edu

Disclosure: H Zhang is supported by a multidisciplinary postdoctoral fellowship (W81XWH-06-1-0499) through the US Department of Defense - Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program on breast cancer. D Yee and C Wang acknowledge support from the US National Institutes of Health. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Sidebar: Executive Summary

• Quantum dots are semiconductor nanocrystals that emit fluorescence on excitation. They have excellent optical properties, such as high brightness, resistant to photo-bleaching and tunable emission spectra.
  
  

• Quantum dots have been used in sentinel lymph-node mapping, targeting and localizing tumors in vivo.
  
  

• Quantum dots have raised concerns about toxicity, nonspecific reticuloendothelial system uptake and face challenges on improving specific targeting to metastatic tumors in vivo.
  
  

• Further development of quantum dots might enable their application in detecting and localizing metastasis, quantitative measurement of molecular targets to facilitate targeted therapy, tracking the delivery and monitoring the efficacy of therapeutics noninvasively in real time.