Pharmacodynamic studies on 4 T1 tumour bearing BALB/c mice revealed excellent antitumour effectiveness of BP-DOX@PDA-TF combined with photothermal therapy (PTT) can be ascribed to the high tumour uptake of the nanoformulation, which leads to a significant generation of ROS within the tumour and intense photothermal effects. Here, TF is linked to neoplasm.