Nanotechnology Enhanced Photothermal and Photodynamic Therapies in Obesity-Associated Cancers

Mwende Wairimu G.

School of Natural and Applied Sciences Kampala International University Uganda

                                                                                                   ABSTRACT
Obesity imposes optical, vascular, metabolic, and pharmacokinetic constraints that blunt the performance of photothermal therapy and photodynamic therapy while exacerbating off-target toxicity. Enlarged adipose depots scatter and absorb light differently from lean tissues, abnormal vasculature and extracellular matrix stiffening restrict convection and oxygenation, and dyslipidemia reshapes nanoparticle coronas and
mononuclear phagocyte uptake. Nanomaterials overcome these barriers by concentrating energy-absorbing chromophores and photosensitizers in tumors, shifting excitation into near-infrared windows with deeper penetration, converting endogenous metabolites into oxygen for photochemistry, and furnishing real-time imaging to calibrate heat and singlet oxygen generation. Gold, carbon, semiconducting polymer, and
upconversion platforms improve photothermal conversion and spatial precision; porphyrin, phthalocyanine, BODIPY, aggregation-induced emission photosensitizer, and metal–organic framework constructs upgrade photodynamic yield in hypoxic and lipid-rich microenvironments. Ligand decoration for endothelial, tumor, and myeloid targets typical of obese tumors, albumin hitchhiking, and stimuli-responsive shells align delivery with pathophysiology. This review evaluates how nanotechnology elevates energy absorption, tumor targeting, and therapeutic precision in high-BMI patients and outlines design, dosing, safety, and translational guardrails that convert optical energy into durable cancer control without collateral metabolic harm.

Keywords: photothermal therapy; photodynamic therapy; obesity-associated cancer; near-infrared nanomaterials; image-guided oncology.

CITE AS: Mwende Wairimu G. (2026). Nanotechnology Enhanced Photothermal and Photodynamic Therapies in Obesity-Associated
Cancers. NEWPORT INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN MEDICAL SCIENCES. https://doi.org/10.59298/NIJRMS/2026/7.1.6772