The conjugation of the S-Au40-849 AuNRs with the anti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies had a considerable effect on the overall uptake when incubated with the lung cancer cells for longer than 4 h and the results provide a compelling argument to use molecularly targeted AuNRs for the selective delivery of high concentrations of AuNRs to malignant tissues. Here, EGFR is linked to lung cancer.