Destruction of hypoxic regions within tumors, virtually inaccessible to cancer therapies, may well prevent malignant progression. The tumor’s
recruitment of monocytes into these regions may be exploited for nanoparticle-based delivery. Monocytes containing therapeutic nanoparticles
could serve as “Trojan Horses” for nanoparticle transport into these tumor regions. Here we report the demonstration of several key steps
toward this therapeutic strategy: phagocytosis of Au nanoshells, and photoinduced cell death of monocytes/macrophages as isolates and
within tumor spheroids.