Nanomaterials: Applications in the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer (PC) remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in human sowing to missed early and effective diagnosis. The inability to translate research into clinical trials and to target chemotherapy drugs to tumors is a major obstacle in PC treatment. Compared with traditional cancer detection methods, the method combining existing clinical diagnosis and detection systems with nanoscale components using novel nanomaterials shows higher sensitivity and specificity. Nanomaterials can interact with biological systems to efficiently and accurately detect and monitor biological events during diagnosis and treatment. With the advance of experimental and engineering technology, more nanomaterials will begin the transition to clinical trials for their validation. This paper describes a number of nanomaterials used in the diagnosis and treatment of PC. ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.