Table 3. Algae for cancer therapy.
| Therapy | (Engineered) algae | Cancer | Administration route | Reference |
| Note: peros (p.o.); intravenous (i.v.); intraperitoneal (i.p.); intratumoral (i.t.); subcutaneous (s.c.) | ||||
| Algae-only based | Chl. | Non-small-cell lung cancer | p.o. | Lin et al. 2017 |
| C. reinhardtii | Melanoma | i.v. | Holmes et al. 2022 | |
| C. reinhardtii | B-cell lymphomas | p.o. | Tran et al. 2013 | |
| Bac@Au | Breast cancer | i.v. | Wang et al. 2021b | |
| SP | / | / | Yan et al. 2017 | |
| Chemo-based | Diatom |
Neuroblastoma, B-lymphoma |
i.p. | Delalat et al. 2015 |
| Chlorella AuNRs BSA-Gel | Breast cancer | i.p. | Lee et al. 2019 | |
| SpiD | Osteosarcoma | i.p. | An et al. 2024 | |
| MChl | Melanoma | i.v. | Gao et al. 2022 | |
| C. reinhardtii | Breast cancer | / | Akolpoglu et al. 2020 | |
| BMMs | Cervical cancer | / | Gong et al. 2022 | |
| Diatom | Breast cancer | / | Maher et al. 2016 | |
| (Pd@Au)/Fe3O4@Sp.-DOX microrobots |
Esophageal carcinoma renal cell carcinoma |
/ | Wang et al. 2019 | |
| SP@DOX | Breast cancer | i.v. | Zhong et al. 2020b | |
| SP@Curcumin | Colon cancer | p.o. | Zhong et al. 2021c | |
| Radio-based | SP@Curcumin | Colon cancer | p.o. | Zhong et al. 2021c |
| SP-Au | Breast cancer, Lung cancer | i.t. | Hua et al. 2024 | |
| RBCM-Algae | Breast cancer | i.t., i.v. | Qiao et al. 2020 | |
| Algae@SiO2 | Breast cancer | i.v. | Li et al. 2020 | |
| CV@CaP | Breast cancer | i.v. | Zhong et al. 2021b | |
| MSP hybrid microswimmers | Breast cancer | i.v. | Zhong et al. 2020a | |
| SP@AMF | Colorectal cancer | p.o. | Zhang et al. 2022 | |
| Immuno-based | ADU@Fe-SP | Colorectal cancer | i.v. | Zhang et al. 2023 |
| Au@E-SP | Breast cancer | s.c. | Qi et al. 2024 | |
| Chl@BP-Fe | Melanoma | i.t. | Ou et al. 2022 | |
| S/HSA/ICG | Breast cancer | i.v. | Liu et al. 2020 | |
| MChl-CQ-HP-NP | Melanoma | i.v. | Gao et al. 2023 | |
| MChl | Melanoma | i.v. | Gao et al. 2022 | |
| Me |
Breast cancer, Colon cancer |
i.t. | Yang et al. 2024b | |
| ACG gel | Breast cancer | i.t. | Zhang et al. 2024a | |
| Photo-based | Au-SP@CF | Breast cancer | i.v. | Hosseini et al. 2022 |
| Cyano | Breast cancer | i.t. | Sun et al. 2020 | |
| Chl. | Colorectal cancer | i.v. | Wang et al. 2021a | |
| CeCyan | Breast cancer | i.v. | Huo et al. 2020b | |
| Cyan@BPNSs | Breast cancer | i.t. | Qi et al. 2021 | |
| UR-Cyan | Breast cancer | i.t. | Qi et al. 2021 | |
| SP |
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma |
/ | Saberi et al. 2022 | |
| CurNPs-C | Breast cancer | i.v. | Zhang et al. 2024b | |
| Chl. | Colon cancer | i.t. | Wang et al. 2022 | |
| ALGAE | Breast cancer | i.v. | Zhou et al. 2019 | |
| SpiD | Osteosarcoma | i.t. | An et al. 2024 | |
| Chlorella AuNRs BSA-Gel | Breast cancer | s.c. | Lee et al. 2019 | |
| (Pd@Au)/Fe3O4@Sp.-DOX microrobots |
Esophageal carcinoma renal cell carcinoma |
/ | Wang et al. 2019 | |
| Algae@SiO2 | Breast cancer | i.v. | Li et al. 2020 | |
| CV@CaP | Breast cancer | i.v. | Zhong et al. 2021b | |
| RBCM-Algae | Breast cancer | i.v. | Qiao et al. 2020 | |
| MSP hybrid microswimmers | Breast cancer | i.v. | Zhong et al. 2020a | |
| Chl@BP-Fe | Melanoma | i.t. | Ou et al. 2022 | |
| S/HSA/ICG | Breast cancer | i.v. | Liu et al. 2020 | |
| Au@E-SP | Breast cancer | s.c. | Qi et al. 2024 | |
| CP@ICG | Cervicalcancer | i.v. | Zhang et al. 2024c | |
| Sono-based | MChl-CQ-HP-NP | Melanoma | i.v. | Gao et al. 2023 |
| Me |
Breast cancer, Colon cancer |
i.v. | Yang et al. 2024b | |
| Starvation-based | CP@ICG | Cervicalcancer | i.v. | Zhang et al. 2024c |
| ACG gel | Breast cancer | i.t. | Zhang et al. 2024a | |