Review Article

Tumor mineralization-based cancer diagnosis and therapy

¹ Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310058, China
² LanTian Community, QiuShi College, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
³ Cancer Institute (Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Intervention, China National Ministry of Education), The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310009, China
⁴ Institute of Translational Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310029, China
⁵ Cancer Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310029, China
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Transvascular Implantation Devices, Hangzhou, 310009, China

^* Corresponding author: benwang@zju.edu.cn

Received: 12 September 2023
Accepted: 3 January 2024

Abstract

Biomineralization is a phenomenon that involves the deposition of inorganic ions onto organic substrates, resulting in the formation of hard tissue materials. Tumor mineralization, on the other hand, encompasses two key aspects: tumor calcification and tumor iron mineralization. The occurrence of spontaneous tumor calcification and regional lymph node calcification in colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and glioblastoma has been established as a favorable prognostic factor in clinical settings. Building upon this understanding, we propose the concept and advance the development of a compound that artificially induces bionic mineralization around the surface of cancer cells. This process has demonstrated exceptional efficacy in inhibiting the growth and metastasis of cervical, breast, and lung tumors. Moreover, it has exhibited outstanding performance in the early-stage diagnosis of cancer. Consequently, we anticipate that this concept holds significant potential for cancer-targeted mineralization therapy and diagnosis, offering a novel avenue for the development of anticancer drugs.