Nowadays
cancer remains one of the main causes of death in the world. Current diagnostic techniques need to be improved to provide earlier diagnosis and treatment. Traditional
therapy approaches to
cancer are limited by lack of specificity and systemic toxicity. In this scenario nanomaterials could be good allies to give more specific
cancer treatment effectively reducing undesired side effects and giving at the same time accurate diagnosis and successful therapy. In this context, thanks to its unique physical and chemical properties,
graphene,
graphene oxide (GO) and reduced
graphene (rGO) have recently attracted tremendous interest in biomedicine including
cancer therapy. Herein we analyzed all studies presented in literature related to
cancer fight using
graphene and
graphene-based conjugates. In this context, we aimed at the full picture of the state of the art providing new inputs for future strategies in the
cancer theranostic by using of
graphene. We found an impressive increasing interest in the material for
cancer therapy and/or diagnosis. The majority of the works (73%) have been carried out on
drug and gene delivery applications, following by
photothermal therapy (32%), imaging (31%) and
photodynamic therapy (10%). A 27% of the studies focused on
theranostic applications. Part of the works here discussed contribute to the growth of the
theranostic field covering the use of imaging (i.e. ultrasonography, positron electron tomography, and fluorescent imaging) combined to one or more therapeutic modalities. We found that the use of
graphene in
cancer theranostics is still in an early but rapidly growing stage of investigation. Any technology based on nanomaterials can significantly enhance their possibility to became the real revolution in medicine if combines diagnosis and
therapy at the same time. We performed a comprehensive summary of the latest progress of
graphene cancer fight and highlighted the future challenges and the innovative possible
theranostic applications.