Thermo- and pH-dual responsive polymeric micelles with upper critical solution temperature behavior for photoacoustic imaging-guided synergistic chemo-photothermal therapy against subcutaneous and metastatic breast tumors

Chemo-photothermal therapy shows great potential for inhibiting tumor growth. However, achieving maximal chemo-photothermal synergistic efficacy is challenging because of the low efficiency of controllable chemo-drug release in response to external or internal triggers. Thus, a nano-delivery system that could effectively achieve photothermal therapy and dual stimuli-responsive (heat and pH) drug release to inhibit both primary breast tumor growth and metastases is required.