Table 3.

Recent studies on CNMs for cancer therapy

Type of materials	Loaded drug	Feature	Anti-cancer effect	References
rGO	PTX	Phosphorylcholine oligomer grafted perylene-modified	Cytotoxicity of PTX against SGC7901 tumor cell line was improved compared with free PTX	[166]
rGO	DOX	Folic acid-conjugated	Enhanced specificity and cytotoxicity of DOX to MBA-MB 231 human breast cancer cells	[167]
rGO	MTX	Gold NPs-coated	Activity of MTX on MCF-7 was improved compared to free MTX	[168]
GO	MTX	Dopamine-conjugated	Capacity of MTX targeting dopamine receptors expressing cancer cells was enhanced	[169]
GO	DOX	Carboxymethyl cellulose-functionalized	DOX was released pH-dependently and showed good antitumor activity and biocompatibility without no obvious cytotoxicity	[170]
Fullerene	C60 (OH)22	Targeting at cancer stem cells	Biological communication of stem cells and tumor cells was inhibited	[171]
Fullerene	Gd@C82 (OH)22	Angiogenesis	10 proangiogenic factors were downregulated in mice model	[172]
CNT	Hydrazine–SWNT–DOX	pH-sensitive drug release	Great cytotoxicity toward HepG2 tumor cells with high weight loading	[173]
CNT	Chitosan–MWCNT–DOX	Used in photothermal/chemotherapy	Sustained release of DOX and significant hyperthermia exhibiting remarkably enhanced anti-tumor efficacy	[174]
CQD	CQD–mesoporous silica nanoparticle–DOX	pH-sensitive drug release	80% DOX load released at pH 5.0 and a remarkably enhanced anti-tumor efficiency was exhibited	[175]

CNTs, Carbon nanotubes; CQDs, Carbon quantum dots; DOX, Doxorubicin; GO, Graphene oxide; MTX, Methotrexate; MWCNTs, Multiwalled carbon nanotubes; PTX, Paclitaxel; rGO, Reduced graphene oxide