Galectin-1-targeted theranostic nanoprobe for multimodal imaging and photothermal therapy in cervical cancer lymph node metastases.

Accurately evaluating lymph node (LN) status is essential for cervical cancer staging and making treatment decisions. However, the current preoperative imaging modalities for diagnosing LN metastasis in patients with cervical cancer are suboptimal, and the existing radiochemotherapy methods lack specificity, which leads to increased toxicity and side effects. To overcome these limitations, we aimed to develop a theranostic strategy for LN metastases with a galectin-1-targeted nanoprobe for dual-modal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/near-infrared (NIR) imaging and photothermal therapy (PTT).