Cancer

This book describes the plasmonic photothermal-assisted multimodal cancer therapeutics in the area of cancer nanotechnology or cancer nanomedicine. This book covers the fundamentals of plasmonic photothermal cancer therapy as well as plasmonic photothermal mediated multimodal cancer therapy. The various steps involved in developing such therapeutic modality, viz. (a) the selection of suitable nanoparticles, (b) synthesis of multifunctional nanocomposite, © optimization of the photosensitizer and chemotherapeutic drug loadings, (d) characterization of the synthesized nanocomposite, and (e) therapeutic evaluations through novel tumor-tissue mimicking phantoms and the cancer cell lines are discussed in detail. Apart from the detailed description of therapeutic outcome, this book provides a step-by-step approach to develop a multifunctional nanocomposite for such therapeutics. Overall, this book provides simplified and in-depth information about cancer nanobiotechnology to the researchers and graduate students in subject areas of nanotechnology, biotechnology and pharmaceutics to develop and contribute to such multimodal cancer therapeutics.

Lung cancer is the second most diagnosed cancer and remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. The high mortality is largely the consequence of late diagnosis; lung cancer is typically asymptomatic in early stages when a surgical cure is most likely. As a result, there has been great interest in and research on early detection of lung cancer through screening.

Despite improvements in strategies for early detection and cancer treatment, racial and ethnic groups and individuals from other medically underserved populations continue to experience disparities in cancer morbidity and mortality. Research in cancer health disparities has evolved from first generation studies that described racial differences in morbidity and mortality to research that examines the efforts of interventions that focus on increasing access to early detection and treatment. As a result of these efforts, racial background, socioeconomic characteristics, access to high quality cancer care, and psychological and social factors have been documented as important determinants of cancer health disparities; these factors provide the context within which cancer is detected, treated, and prevented.