**Abstract**

Cancer is the second most cause of mortality worldwide. The most common treatments are surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Magnetic mesoporous nanoparticles (MMNPs) have attractive features such as high surface areas, large pore volumes, uniform and tunable pore sizes, high mechanical stability, and surface functionalization options for application as drug delivery systems. The latter make them a promising platform for the cancer treatment. Magnetic properties can be controlled by selecting the chemical nature and concentration of the magnetic materials to be embedded into the porous structure. These magnetic composites may be guided to allow precise targeting of a tumor using an external magnetic field. The mesoporous structure can also be loaded with different types of therapeutic agents, radiotracers, or fluorescent markers. Doping of the magnetic nanocomposite with rare earth elements may generate novel composites with physical properties useful for medical imaging or radiotherapy. The MMNPs could generate hyperthermia temperatures when exposed to an alternate-magnetic field (AMF). Many promising anticancer drugs have poor solubility, a problem that can be solved by using the MMNPs as nanocarriers, improving the bioavailability of the drugs. These MMNPs could become a promising multifunctional platform for the design of chemotherapeutic, medical imaging, drug delivery, and hyperthermia agents for cancer treatment.

**Keywords:**mesoporous, magnetic, nanoparticles, drug delivery system, theranostic
