A QUICK OVERVIEW OF NANOMEDICINE APPLICATIONS IN BREAST CANCER DETECTION, IMAGING, AND THERAPY

Breast cancer continues to be a global public health dilemma and is currently the most prevalent tumor in the world. Breast cancer awareness, public attention, and progress in the breast imaging have had a positive impact on breast cancer recognition and screening. Breast cancer is a fatal disease in females and the leading cause of death in females. Over the past two decades, studies related to breast cancer have guided amazing advances in our understanding of breast cancer, leading to more competent treatments. Among all the malignant diseases, breast cancer is one of the most common causes of mortality among postmenopausal women, accounting for 23% of all cancer fatalities. This is a global problem today, but it is still diagnosed in its advanced stages due to women's neglect concerning about the self-inspection and clinical examination of the breast. This review presents different types of breast cancer, symptoms, risk factors, epidemiology of breast cancer, stages of breast cancer, diagnostic investigations, and treatment. Chemotherapy, targeted therapies, surgery, radiation therapy, hormone replacement therapy, complementary therapies, gene therapy, and stem-cell therapy are some of the treatments for breast cancer. In this review, various applications of nano-carriers were discussed such as nanopolymers, Nanoshells, nanocrystals, quantum dots, and dendrimers were examined, as well as their potential in early cancer diagnosis and therapy.