{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T15:05:19Z","timestamp":1789657519572,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":116,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789603200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Chem."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Biliary tract cancers (BTCs), including cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder carcinoma, are highly aggressive malignancies associated with poor prognosis, late diagnosis, and limited therapeutic options. Conventional chemotherapy offers only modest survival benefits because of inadequate tumor selectivity, rapid systemic clearance, dose-limiting toxicity, and the emergence of chemoresistance. Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have emerged as promising nanotheranostic agents owing to their ultrasmall size, tunable photoluminescence, excellent aqueous dispersibility, biocompatibility, and versatile surface chemistry, enabling simultaneous drug delivery, imaging, and phototherapy. This review summarizes the evolution of carbon dots into structurally engineered CQDs and discusses their physicochemical, optical, and biological properties that underpin their biomedical applications. Particular emphasis is placed on recent advances in CQD-based drug delivery, fluorescence bioimaging, photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, and multifunctional theranostic platforms relevant to BTC management. Although direct studies on CQDs for BTC remain limited, emerging evidence from hepatobiliary and other gastrointestinal cancers highlights their potential to improve targeted drug delivery, tumor imaging, and therapeutic efficacy. The review further identifies critical challenges to clinical translation, including the lack of BTC-specific preclinical models, insufficient pharmacokinetic and long-term biosafety data, and the need for standardized, reproducible CQD synthesis and functionalization protocols. Finally, future research directions are discussed, emphasizing tumor-targeted CQD engineering, multimodal therapeutic strategies, and integration with precision oncology. Collectively, CQDs represent a promising nanoplatform for the development of targeted, image-guided, and minimally invasive approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of biliary tract cancers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fchem.2026.1899601","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T14:23:58Z","timestamp":1789655038000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Carbon dots in cancer therapy: a novel approach to targeted drug delivery and reduced toxicity in gallbladder cancer"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Mahvish","family":"Fatima","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics, College of Science, Qassim University","place":["Buraidah, Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Warda","family":"Parveen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Energy and Minning Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology","place":["Qingdao, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Norah M.","family":"Almaneai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Qassim University","place":["Buraidah, Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Attalla F.","family":"El-kott","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University","place":["Abha, Saudi Arabia"]},{"name":"Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Damanhour University","place":["Damanhour, Egypt"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohammed A.","family":"AlShehri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University","place":["Abha, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Waleed","family":"Eltantawy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Program of Preparatory Year, Batterjee Medical College","place":["Aseer, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nosheen","family":"Kanwal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Qassim University","place":["Buraidah, Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zaheera","family":"Saadia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, Qassim University","place":["Buraidah, Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"932","DOI":"10.3390\/PH17070932","article-title":"Photodynamic therapy in the treatment of cancer\u2014The selection of synthetic photosensitizers","volume":"17","author":"Aebisher","year":"2024","journal-title":"Pharmaceuticals"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1186\/S12935-019-0815-0","article-title":"The role of photodynamic therapy on multidrug resistant breast cancer","volume":"19","author":"Aniogo","year":"2019","journal-title":"Cancer Cell Int."},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"112365","DOI":"10.1016\/J.ENVRES.2021.112365","article-title":"Tunable fluorescent carbon dots from biowaste as fluorescence ink and imaging human normal and cancer cells","volume":"204","author":"Atchudan","year":"2022","journal-title":"Environ. 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