The study of light-responsive nanocarriers is becoming one of the hottest topics in biomedical field due to their precise control of drug release for cancer therapy in spatiotemporal level. This contribution systematically reviewed three mechanisms for controlled drug release of photosensitive nanocarriers, including (1) photoisomerization caused morphological transformation of nanocarriers, (2) photoreaction caused degradation of nanocarriers, and (3) photothermal caused disruption of nanocarriers. This review briefly introduced the three mechanisms and their corresponding photosensitive materials. In addition, the recent research developments and problems remained of photosensitive materials for drug delivery and controlled release were pointed out. This review also provided useful references for photosensitive nanocarriers in biological applications and the research prospects were further proposed.

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Light-responsive nanocarriers for drug release
2.1 Photoisomerization-induced morphological trans-formation
2.2 Photoreaction-induced degradation
2.3 Photothermal-induced disruption
3 Conclusion