Green-Synthesized Nanomaterials for Kidney Cancer: Current Progress and Future Perspectives

Abstract

The kidney is an essential organ that has a crucial role in preserving homeostasis within the human body. Kidney cancer is considered a major clinical challenge owing to its resistance to traditional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy. Nanoparticles (NPs) gain great attention in cancer therapy due to their low toxicity, biocompatibility, and targeted drug delivery capability. This review focuses on the current role of green-synthesized NPs in renal cell carcinoma management and their applications in targeted drug delivery and cancer-specific targeting mechanisms with the demonstration of the environmentally friendly green synthesis approaches utilizing biological resources such as plant extracts and microorganisms, highlighting their advantages over conventional synthesis methods in terms of biocompatibility, sustainability, and reduced toxicity. Moreover, the therapeutic potential of nanomaterials is discussed, including magnetic NP-mediated thermal therapy, photothermal therapy, gene delivery systems, and RNA interference-based strategies. We underscore the challenges and limitations of NPs, including in vivo toxicity, biodistribution, clinical translation, large-scale production, batch-to-batch variability, long-term safety, scalability, repeatability, regulation, and reproducibility. There is growing potential to improve the treatment of kidney cancer. Hence, the promising prospects of nanotechnology in kidney cancer treatment provide a foundation for future research and clinical application. This comprehensive article highlights the significant contributions of nanomedicine to oncology and shows an optimistic perspective for more effective and precise treatment strategies for kidney cancer.