REVIEW article
Front. Nanotechnol.
Sec. Biomedical Nanotechnology
SPIONs as Theranostic Agents in Bladder and Prostate Cancer: Integrating Diagnosis and Therapy
Provisionally accepted
- 1The Sixth People's Hospital of Huizhou, Huizhou, China
- 2Lanxi People's Hospital, Jinhua, China
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Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) have emerged as transformative theranostic platforms in urological oncology. This review systematically synthesizes literature from PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus (2010–2024) to evaluate SPION-based strategies for bladder cancer (BCa) and prostate cancer (PCa). We highlight their role in enhancing diagnostic precision (e.g., PSMA-targeted MRI, sentinel lymph node navigation) and enabling innovative therapies (e.g., magneto-photothermal synergy, ferroptosis immunomodulation). Key advantages include superior targeting, multimodal imaging capability, and the ability to overcome physiological barriers such as the blood-prostate and blood-urine barriers. While preclinical results are promising, clinical translation requires addressing biosafety, scalable production, and regulatory hurdles. SPIONs represent a robust alternative to conventional therapeutics, particularly in settings requiring precision and combinatory approaches.
Keywords: Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs), prostate cancer, Bladder cancer, magnetic nanoparticles, Cancer nanomedicine, theranostics
Received: 17 Sep 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Wu, Liu and Lou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kecheng Lou, 18329037615@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.