Gold Nanoparticles for Radiation Enhancement in Vivo.

Enhancing the effect of radiation on tumors would be a significant improvement in radiation therapy. With radiation enhancement, less radiation could be used to achieve the same goals, lessening damage to healthy tissue and lessening side effects. Gold nanoparticles are a promising method for achieving this enhancement, particularly when the gold nanoparticles are targeted to cancer. This literature review discusses the properties of gold nanoparticles as well as existing in vivo radiation enhancement results using both targeted and non-targeted gold nanoparticles.