The resulting increase in temperature has been harnessed to trigger the release of a therapeutic cargo and to induce cell death, the latter also resulting from the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (i.e., photodynamic therapy, PTD). For instance, when exposing a hybrid PEGbased hydrogel, which incorporated gold nanorods (Au NRs) to a 10-min irradiation at 860 nm, it was possible to locally rise the temperature up to 55 or 60 °C by adjusting the laser power at