Rare earth-doped nanoparticles have been widely used in disease diagnosis, drug delivery, tumor therapy, and bioimaging. Among various bioimaging methods, the fluorescence imaging technology based on the rare earth-doped nanoparticles can visually display the cell activity and lesion evolution in living animals, which is a powerful tool in biological technology and has being widely applied in medical and biological fields. Especially in the band of near infrared (700–1700 nm), the emissions show the characteristics of deep penetration due to low absorption, low photon scattering, and low autofluorescence interference. Furthermore, the rare earth-doped nanoparticles can be endowed with the water solubility, biocompatibility, drug-loading ability, and the targeting ability for different tumors by surface functionalization. This confirms its potential in the cancer diagnosis and treatment. In this review, we summarized the recent progress in the application of rare earth-doped nanoparticles in the field of bioimaging and tumor treatment. The luminescent mechanism, properties, and structure design were also discussed.

稀土掺杂纳米粒子已广泛应用于疾病诊断、药物输送、肿瘤治疗和生物成像。在各种生物成像方法中，基于稀土掺杂纳米粒子的荧光成像技术可以直观地显示活体动物的细胞活性和病变演变，是生物技术的有力工具，在医学和生物领域得到广泛应用。特别是在近红外波段（700-1700 nm），由于低吸收、低光子散射和低自发荧光干扰，发射表现出深穿透的特性。此外，稀土掺杂的纳米粒子可以通过表面功能化赋予水溶性、生物相容性、载药能力和针对不同肿瘤的靶向能力。这证实了它在癌症诊断和治疗中的潜力。在这篇综述中，我们总结了稀土掺杂纳米粒子在生物成像和肿瘤治疗领域的应用进展。还讨论了发光机理、性质和结构设计。