Cancer remains a major global health problem, causing significant economic burden worldwide. Current clinical cancer treatments are unsatisfactory in terms of both antitumor efficacy and biocompatibility. Meanwhile, nanomaterials attract much attention as potential treatment strategies with improved antitumor efficacy and reduced side effects. Selenium-containing nanomaterials are considered to be a promising biomaterial candidate among many different approaches during the last decade. Selenium-containing nanomaterials exhibit good biocompatibility since selenium is an essential trace element in human body. With rational design, selenium-containing nanomaterials show high sensitivity to redox stimuli and anticancer activity. Here, we discuss the development of selenium-containing nanomaterials as drug delivery carriers and anticancer drugs for cancer treatment. The nanomaterials with promising performance both in vitro and in vivo could advance to clinical therapies.

癌症仍然是全球主要的健康问题，在世界范围内造成巨大的经济负担。就抗肿瘤功效和生物相容性而言，当前的临床癌症治疗均不能令人满意。同时，纳米材料作为具有改善的抗肿瘤功效和减少的副作用的潜在治疗策略引起了广泛的关注。在过去的十年中，含硒的纳米材料被认为是许多有前景的生物材料的候选材料。由于硒是人体必需的微量元素，所以含硒纳米材料具有良好的生物相容性。通过合理的设计，含硒纳米材料对氧化还原刺激和抗癌活性具有很高的敏感性。这里，我们讨论含硒纳米材料作为药物输送载体和抗癌药物用于癌症治疗的发展。性能都令人满意的纳米材料体外和体内可以发展为临床疗法。