Depiction of the clinical importance of conjugated quantum dots in the diagnosis, drug administration and treatment for various disease conditions^a.

Types of QDs	Type of cancer	Diagnostic technique	Model	Outcome	Reference
Gelatin–CdTe QDs	Breast cancer	Confocal laser scanning microscopy	In vitro	Enabled synergistic growth inhibition of breast cancer cells	85
			In vivo
Iron selenide (FeSe)	Breast cancer	Multiphoton microscopy	In vitro	In vitro tumour cell targeting specificity was evaluated in HER2-overexpressed MCF7 cells using FeSe QDs and in vivo MPM imaging was conducted in a live xenograft mouse model of human breast tumour	128
			In vivo
Near-infrared QDs	Squamous carcinoma	Confocal laser scanning microscopy	In vitro	Detection of cell proliferation and apoptosis. In vivo imaging increased the sensitivity of cancer in early detection by a factor of 100 compared with traditional detection methods	35
			In vivo
Cadmium–selenide and indium–gallium-phosphide	Pancreatic carcinoma breast cancer	TEM fluorescence microscopy	In vitro	The effect of radiofrequency field exposure after targeted nanoparticle treatment in a coculture of 2 human cancer cell lines that have differential EGFR-1 expression (a high-expressing pancreatic carcinoma, Panc-1, and a low-expressing breast carcinoma, Cama-1). Bifunctionality of fluorescent nanoparticles as agents for both cancer cell imaging and treatment	36
		Flow cytometry
The red QD is attached to a UBI, an antimicrobial peptide. The green QD is attached to MDP, which accumulates in areas of inflammation	Charcot neuroarthropathy	Fluorescence microscopy	In vitro	QD-based method for distinguishing CN with sterile inflammation from osteomyelitis that does not require multiple and frequent imaging modalities	129
Aptamer (Apt-)-doxorubicin (Dox) conjugate system [QD-Apt(Dox)]	Prostate cancer	Confocal laser scanning microscopy	In vitro	Sterile inflammation from osteomyelitis that does not require multiple and frequent imaging modalities	130
Near-infrared luminescent	Oral squamous cell carcinoma	In Vivo imaging system FX pro	In vitro	Great promise for the early diagnosis, visual observation, and individualized treatment of oral cancer	131
			In vivo
Immunohistochemical (IHC) technique and trastuzumab-conjugated Qds (IHC-Qds)	Breast cancer	Single-particle imaging system	In vitro	The novel IHC-QDs method could achieve autofluorescence subtracted imaging of tumour cells and rapid diagnosis of the HER2-expression level, which overcame the disadvantages of traditional IHC protocol	132
Silver–indium–sulphide QDs	Colon cancer	Fluorescence imaging	In vitro	Elicited significant cell death due to enhanced light-induced ROS generation and apoptotic/necrotic cell death	48
CdSe/ZnS coated with silica, polyamidoamine and PEG	Colon cancer	MRI imaging system	In vitro	Early tumor detection using MRI	133
Mercaptoundecanoic acid-coated CdTe/CdSe/ZnSe QD conjugated to anti-HER2 mAb	Breast cancer	Fluorescence imaging	In vitro	Anti-HER2 targeted breast cancer therapy	134
124I-cRGDY–PEG–C dots	Melanoma	Targeted molecular therapy and imaging	Human	Tumor visualization and targeted therapy	135
CuInS(2)/ZnS QD	Breast cancer	Sentinel lymph node tracing in mice breast cancer model	In vivo	Visualization of lymph nodes after 5 min, stable signal regardless of the metastatic invasion	136

^aThe clinical importance of conjugated QDs in the diagnosis, drug administration and treatment for various disease conditions. The experimental evidence shows the various diagnostic tools that serve as an important factor in the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer cells in both in vivo and in vitro studies.