For human beings, biological processes, including events necessary for life may lead to cancer and this occur at the nanoscale.

Cancers are primarily an environmental disease with 90-95% of cases due to lifestyle and environmental factors and 5-10% due to genetics. Common environmental factors that lead to cancer death include: tobacco (25-30%), diet and obesity (30-35%), infections (15-20%), radiation, radon exposure, stress, lack of physical activity andenvironmental pollutants.

Current therapies
Cancer therapies are currently limited to surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. All three methods risk damage to normal tissues or incomplete eradication of the cancer.

Nanotechnology therapies

Nanotechnology offers the means to aim therapies directly and selectively at cancerous cells. Nanotechnology provides researchers with the opportunity to study and manipulate macromolecules in real time and during the earliest stages of cancer progression. Nanotechnology can provide rapid and sensitive detection of cancer-related molecules. Nanotechnology allows researchers to study cancer in its earliest stages of progression, enabling early detection and development of novel therapies to target the disease.Nanotechnology also has the potential to generate entirely novel and highly effective therapeutic agents. Nanooncology is the application of nanobiotechnology to the management of cancer and is currently the most important area of nanomedicine.