Abstract: Cancer is one of the leading causes of human death around the world. Despite of great advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment, also known as cancer theranostics, treatment responses, however, are often impeded by heterogeneity and stealthiness of cancer. Recently, with the fast development of nanotechnology, nanomaterials exhibit great potential in cancer theranostics for their excellent physiochemical properties including tumor targeting, good biocompatibility and easy functionalization. Moreover, a wide variety of nano-drugs have been tested in clinical trials, and some of them have been approved for human use. In this review, we aimed to provide insights into the applications of nanomaterials for innovative cancer diagnosis as well as enhanced chemotherapy, radiation therapy, phototherapy and immunotherapy of cancer. Additionally, we highlighted some examples and prospect for the further development of cancer nanotheranostics.

Key words: Nanotheranostics, Malignant tumor, Targeted drug delivery system