Despite the development of medical technology, cancer still remains a great threat to the survival of people all over the world. Photothermal therapy (PTT) is a minimally invasive method for selective photothermal ablation of cancer cells without damages to normal cells. Recently, copper chalcogenide semiconductors have emerged as a promising photothermal agent attributed to strong absorbance in the near-infrared (NIR) region and high photothermal conversion efficiency. An earlier study witnessed a rapid increase in their development for cancer therapy, including CuS, Cu_2–xSe and CuTe nanocrystals. However, a barrier is that the minimum laser power intensity for effective PTT is still significantly higher than the conservative limit for human skin exposure. Improving the photothermal conversion efficiency and reducing the laser power density has become a direction for the development of PTT. Furthermore, in an effort to improve the therapeutic efficacy, many multimode therapeutic nanostuctures have been formulated by integrating the photothermal agents with antitumor drugs, photosensitizers, or radiosensitizers, resulting in a synergistic effect. Various functional materials also have been absorbed, attached, encapsulated, or coated on the photothermal nanostructures, including fluorescence, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, realizing cancer diagnosis, tumor location, site-specific therapy, and evaluation of therapeutic responses via incorporation of diagnosis and treatment.

中文翻译：

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用于癌症治疗的近红外响应光热半导体纳米材料的设计和功能化

尽管医疗技术得到了发展，但是癌症仍然对全世界人民的生存构成巨大威胁。光热疗法（PTT）是一种用于对癌细胞进行选择性光热消融而不损害正常细胞的微创方法。近来，硫属铜化物半导体已经成为一种有前途的光热剂，这归因于其在近红外（NIR）区域的强吸收性和高的光热转换效率。较早的一项研究表明，其用于癌症治疗的发展迅速增加，包括CuS，Cu _{2– x}Se和CuTe纳米晶体。但是，有一个障碍是有效PTT的最小激光功率强度仍显着高于人体皮肤暴露的保守极限。提高光热转换效率和降低激光功率密度已经成为PTT发展的方向。此外，为了提高治疗效果，已经通过将光热剂与抗肿瘤药，光敏剂或放射增敏剂结合来配制许多多模治疗纳米结构，从而产生协同作用。各种功能性材料也已被吸收，附着，封装或涂覆在光热纳米结构上，包括荧光，计算机断层扫描，磁共振成像，实现癌症诊断，肿瘤定位，部位特异性治疗，