Nanotechnology and pancreatic cancer management: State of the art and further perspectives

Table 1 Nanotechnology and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma early diagnosis

Year	Ref.	NP type	Main findings
2012	Walkey et al[8]	Gold, Silica, Polystyrene	Characteristics of NPs (material, size, electric charge, hydrophobicity) influence the composition of the PC
2012	Monopoli et al[10]	Silica, Carbon, Iron oxide, Polystyrene	Different experimental sources (e.g., plasma, urine), affect the composition of the PC
2013	Tenzer et al[9]	Silica, Polystyrene	Environmental factors (e.g., incubation time) influence the composition of PC
2014	Caracciolo et al[14]	Liposomes	After interaction of NPs with plasma of PDACs and non-oncological subjects, differences in the electric charge (zeta potential) and size of the PCs allow to distinguish between the two groups
2015	Zheng et al[12]	Gold	Gold-NPs successfully used for early detection of prostate cancer
2017	Corbo et al[11]	Silica, Polystyrene, Gold, Liposomes	Different patients affected by different pathological conditions have “personalized” PC
2018	Caputo et al[16]	Liposomes	Analysis of PCs formed around DOPG liposomes allowed to distinguish patients affected by T1-T2 PDACs from T3s and metastatic ones
2019	Künzel et al[13]	Silica	Successful application of silica NPs in early diagnosis of the head and neck solid squamous carcinoma
2019	Papi et al[15]	GO	Analysis of BC formed around GO nanoflakes distinguished PDAC from healthy subjects (sensitivity 92%)

NP: Nanoparticle; PC: Protein corona; PDAC: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; DOPG: 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-(1'-rac-glycerol); BC: Biomolecular corona; GO: Graphene oxide; NET: NP-enabled tool.