Herein, we report lanthanum-doped carbon dots for delivering the anticancer drug camptothecin. The carbon dots are made as a nanocomposite with a β-cyclodextrin-polyethylene glycol-folate polymer. XRD shows a typical reflection of carbon dots (002). The size of the carbon dot composite is 10.19 nm. XPS shows peaks at 830 and 850 eV, characteristic of lanthanum doped in the carbon dots. The material is superparamagnetic with a saturation magnetization of 0.28 emu/g. The nanocomposite shows a broad absorption band with tail absorption in the near-infrared range. Further, the material shows a high camptothecin encapsulation efficiency above 90 % and a slow release for above 5 days. The in vitro anticancer effect of the drug-loaded nanocarrier is examined on MCF-7 cell lines, and the IC50 value is 1.92 µg mL− 1. The cell cycle arrest is analyzed using flow cytometry. The nanocarrier shows promising results as a drug delivery agent.