As a group of heterocyclic macrocycle organic natural compounds occurring universally in animal tissues and plants, porphyrins are composed of four modified pyrrole subunits. Porphyrin analogues/ derivatives possess multiple biochemical properties because of their unique structures and have been extensively investigated in cancer treatment. Studies have shown that porphyrins and their derivatives have the ability to locate tumor cells in a variety of human cancers, and these compounds not only exhibit potent therapeutic effects as photodynamic agents but also show promising properties in medicinal imaging, such as MRI, photoacoustic imaging, fluorescence imaging, and PET/SPECT imaging. This paper reviews the recent reports of porphyrin derivatives as therapeutic agents used in tumor therapies, such as sonodynamic therapy, photodynamic therapy and radiotherapy, as well as the imaging agents for multimodality tumor imaging. The limitations of porphyrin-based compounds in tumor treatments and future prospects are also summarized.

作为一组普遍存在于动物组织和植物中的杂环大环有机天然化合物，卟啉由四个修饰的吡咯亚基组成。卟啉类似物/衍生物由于其独特的结构而具有多种生化特性，并已在癌症治疗中得到广泛研究。研究表明，卟啉及其衍生物具有在多种人类癌症中定位肿瘤细胞的能力，这些化合物不仅作为光动力剂表现出有效的治疗效果，而且在医学成像方面也显示出有前景的特性，如 MRI、光声成像、荧光成像和 PET/SPECT 成像。本文回顾了最近关于卟啉衍生物作为用于肿瘤治疗的治疗剂的报道，例如声动力学治疗，光动力疗法和放射疗法，以及用于多模态肿瘤成像的显像剂。还总结了卟啉类化合物在肿瘤治疗中的局限性和未来前景。