Research Institute for Medicines, IMed.ULisboa - Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Professor Gama Pinto, 1649-003, Lisboa, Portugal.
Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica (IBEB), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal.
Eur J Pharmacol. 2024 Nov 15;983:176982. doi: 10.1016/j.ejphar.2024.176982. Epub 2024 Sep 12.
Prostate cancer (PCa) is a high prevalence disease, per 10000 habitants, that tends to increase with age. This pathology is difficult to detect at an early stage due to the absence of symptoms, hence the importance of monitoring signs for early detection. This disease can be detected by various methods, including plasmatic levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and rectal touch, with biopsy being necessary to confirm the diagnosis. Patients affected by prostate cancer can have localized or advanced disease. There are conventional approaches that have been used as a reference in localized cancer, such as active surveillance, surgery, or radiotherapy. However, the adverse effects might vary and, sometimes, they can be permanent. An overview about the innovative therapeutic approaches to improve outcomes in terms of both tumor remission and side effects for localized PCa is presented. In case of emerging light-based treatment strategies, they aimed at ablating tumor tissue by inducing an external light are non-invasive, localized and, considerably, they are able to reduce lesions in peripheral tissues. One is photodynamic therapy (PDT) and it involves the photooxidation of molecules culminating in the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), inducing cell death. On the other hand, photothermal therapy (PTT) is based on inducing hyperthermia in cancer cells by irradiating them with beams of light at a specific wavelength. To improve the heat generated, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have those desirable characteristics that have drawn attention to PTT. Various studies point to AuNPs as efficient nanomaterials in PTT for the treatment of tumors, including prostate cancer. This review includes the most representative advances in this research field, dated from 1998 to 2023. It is noticed that several advances have been made and the way to find the effective treatment without impacting adverse side effects is shorter.
前列腺癌（PCa）是一种高发疾病，每 10000 居民中就有一例，且随着年龄的增长而增加。由于缺乏症状，这种疾病在早期很难被发现，因此监测早期发现的迹象非常重要。这种疾病可以通过多种方法检测，包括前列腺特异性抗原（PSA）的血浆水平和直肠触诊，活检是确诊的必要手段。患有前列腺癌的患者可能患有局限性或晚期疾病。对于局限性癌症，有常规方法可以作为参考，例如主动监测、手术或放疗。然而，不良反应可能会有所不同，有时甚至是永久性的。本文综述了局部前列腺癌在提高肿瘤缓解率和减少副作用方面的创新治疗方法。对于新兴的基于光的治疗策略，其目的是通过诱导外部光来消融肿瘤组织，从而达到非侵入性、局部治疗的效果，并且能够显著减少周围组织的损伤。一种是光动力疗法（PDT），它涉及分子的光氧化，最终形成活性氧（ROS），诱导细胞死亡。另一方面，光热疗法（PTT）是基于用特定波长的光束照射癌细胞来诱导其产生过热。为了提高产生的热量，金纳米颗粒（AuNPs）具有一些理想的特性，引起了 PTT 的关注。各种研究表明，AuNPs 是治疗肿瘤（包括前列腺癌）的 PTT 中有效的纳米材料。本综述包括了该研究领域从 1998 年到 2023 年最具代表性的进展。可以注意到，已经取得了多项进展，找到有效治疗而不产生不良副作用的方法越来越近了。
