摘要Objective To develop an effective treatment strategy to simultaneously avoid fatal adverse effects in the treatment of oral cancer, combination therapy has been explored because of its multiple functions. This work aims to develop a novel type of gold-nanorod-based nanomaterials decorated with tetrahedral DNA nanostructures (TDN) carrying antitumor drugs, namely, GNR@TDN-DOX nanocomposites. Methods In the designed structure, TDN, with a three-dimensional geometry composed of DNA strands, can provide GC base pairs for binding with the anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX). The photothermal heating properties, biocompatibility properties, and antitumor performance of obtained GNR@TDN-DOX nanocomposites were investigated to assess their application potential in tumor treatment. Results Systematic studies have shown that the obtained GNR@TDN-DOX nanocomposites have high photothermal conversion under the illumination of an 808-nm infrared laser, leading to effective antitumor applications. In addition, the cell viability study shows that GNR@TDN-DOX nanocomposites have good biocompatibility. In vitro studies based on A375 cells show that the GNR@TDN-DOX nanocomposites can effectively eliminate cancer cells because of the combination of photothermal therapy induced by GNRS and chemotherapy induced by TDN-carrying DOX. The result shows that the obtained GNR@TDN-DOX nanocomposites have efficient cellular uptake and lysosome escape ability, together with their nuclear uptake behavior, which results in a significant antitumor effect. Conclusion This work has demonstrated a potential nanoplatform for anticancer applications.