Table 1 Application of nanotechnology in early diagnosis and comprehensive treatment of gastrointestinal cancer

Diagnosis

Endoscope

Convenient and efficient;Direct observation

Poor identification of small lesions; Strong subjectivity

SERS NPs Capsule endoscopy Confocal laser microendoscopy

Improve sensitive differentiation of small and other difficult-to-detect lesions Highly targeted

[56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67]

Tumour Markers

Convenient, high clinical value,

Limited level of expression, Susceptible to interference, Invasive

Nanobiosensors, SiNWs, SiNW-FETs, QDs

1. Higher accuracy and sensitivity of detection

2. Easier operation

3. Noninvasive

[73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80]

MRI

High soft tissue contrast and no ionising radiation

Nonspecific, Rapid clearance, Tissue deposition

Gd-Liposomes and Gd- nanocomplexes,

SPOIN

1, High biocompatibility

2, Highly targeted

3, Higher detection accuracy and sensitivity

[81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89]

CT

Fast scanning time, Lower cost, High spatial resolution

Limited soft tissue identification, Low contrast accumulation

AuNPs/GNRs, AuNCs, SPOIN, WS2 nanosheets, WO_2.9 nanorods

1, Enhanced accuracy and sensitivity

2, Remarkable imaging effect

3, No toxicity

4, Multimodal imaging

[93,94,95,96,97]

PET

High sensitivity and specificity; Easy to find metastatic lesions

High costs False positives in patients with inflammatory conditions

Dendritic macromolecular systems and extracellular vesicular nanoprobes

1. Reduce false positives

2. Non-toxic

3. Highly targeted

[99]

Fluorescence imaging

Fast imaging, High sensitivity

With longer wavelength, the quality of tissue fluorescence and scattering decreases

ICG-Liposomes; Upconversion nanoparticles

1. Increased diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity

2. High optical stability

3. No toxicity

[106,107,108,109]

Treatment

Intraoperative navigation and surgery

Minimally invasive

Poor localization of tumour margins and tumours

ICG-SPION Cluster, NIRF with endoscopy, SERS/SERRS NPs

1. Increased sensitivity and resolution at tumour margins

2. High tissue penetration

[99, 112,113,114,115,116,117]

Chemotherapy

Good therapeutic effect

Low solubility, poor permeability, Non-specific targeting, Dose-dependent toxicity

Liposomal,

Albumin,

CS NPs, PLGA NPs,

Nanogel, MOF

1. Increased effectiveness of chemotherapy

2. Less toxic side effects of chemotherapy

3.Highly targeted

[151,152,153,154,155,156,157, 160,161,162,163,164,165,166,167,168,169]

Targeted therapy

Well-targeted and low toxic side effects

Drug resistance, Insufficient bioavailability,

Insufficient controlled release

AuNPs,

ND, PLGA NPs

SPION/PVD;

Graphene quantum dots

1. Improving the bioavailability of delivered drugs

2. Higher targeting performance

3. Targeted controlled release

[172,173,174,175,176,177,178,179,180]

Phototherapy

High temporal selectivity and low side effects and low drug resistance

Low photothermal conversion efficiency, irradiation depth and irradiation accuracy

NIRF probe bound gold nanorods and nanoporphyrin micelles;

1. Higher photothermal conversion efficiency

2. Highly targeted

3. Combination of multiple treatment modalities

[124,125,126,127, 131,132,133,134]

Combination therapy

High treatment efficiency and Providing access to treatment for extreme malignancies

Trigger liposomes,

AuNPs,

Core–shell nanoparticles,

Nanoporphyrin micelles;

1、High treatment efficiency

2、providing access to treatment for extreme malignancies

[181,182,183,184,185]