Nanoparticles as theranostic vehicles in prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common tumor in men with more than 1.3 million cases diagnosed and more than 350,000 deaths estimated to occur in 2018 (1). Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is the cornerstone in the management for metastatic PCa. However, ADT is not curative and most of the patients will develop metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) during the next two years after ADT. Approved drugs for mCRPC include second-generation androgen receptor inhibitors (abiraterone acetate and enzalutamide) (2-5), immunotherapy like sipuleucel-T (6), alpha-emitting radiotherapeutic drug (Radium 223) (7) and chemotherapies including docetaxel and cabazitaxel (8,9,10).