**5. Conclusions**

Recent developments in imaging techniques have led to early detection of small fibroadenomas. Although observation is recommended for such cases, the agitations by some women due to fear of malignancy [12] coupled with recent report of 41% increase in cancer risk for women diagnosed with fibroadenomas [13] justify the need to develop techniques that can destroy these tumors with minimal or no side effects. We believe our findings demonstrate the potential of NP-mediated photothermal therapy for destroying fibroadenomas. However, we acknowledge the limitations of the study and understand that a future study should incorporate the important aspects discussed earlier so that a proper assessment can be made. Our long term goal is to develop a non-aggressive and noninvasive treatment method for such benign tumors, which is becoming a growing public health concern.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.Y. and K.K.-D.; methodology, I.B.Y., S.W.K.H., Y.K.K.-A., A.Y. and K.K.D.; software, A.Y. and K.K.-D.; formal analysis, I.B.Y., S.W.K.H., Y.K.K.-A., A.Y. and K.K.D.; investigation, I.B.Y., S.W.K.H., Y.K.K.-A., A.Y. and K.K.D.; writing—original draft preparation, A.Y. and K.K.-D; writing—review and editing, I.B.Y., S.W.K.H., Y.K.K.-A., A.Y. and K.K.D.; project administration, K.K.-D.; funding acquisition, K.K.-D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the Building a New Generation of Academics in Africa (BANGA-Africa) project, which is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
