Nanotechnology: The Biggest Development in Cancer Cures

1

Nanotechnology: The Biggest Development in Cancer Cures

Few words in the English language evoke fear and the feelings of hopelessness quite like Cancer. According to the American Cancer Society there will be 1,529,560 new cases of cancer in the United States next year. Of those new cases 33,070 will be in the state of Tennessee. These numbers indicate 44.05% of men and 37.63% of woman will develop some form of invasive cancer over their lifetime. The economic outlook is not any better. As of January 2008 research showed cancer had the most devastating economic impact of any cause of death in the world with death and disability benefits toping $895 Billion. (LiveStrong.org)

With new technology a cure may be on the horizon. The National Cancer Institute is now looking into ways to harness the power of nanotechnology which could change the way we treat cancer and possibly the way we diagnose it as well. Research with nano devices have shown the potential of breakthroughs in detecting cancer at its earliest stages, determining its exact location within the human body, or administering anticancer drugs to malignant cells.

This technology could not have come a better time because of new knowledge gained from the Human Genome Project. But at this time scientist lack the technical knowledge of these molecular discoveries into benefits for cancer patients. This is where the advances in nanotechnologies can help. By combining the knowledge of molecular biology and the advances in nanotechnology, scientists hope to develop new transportation devices. These devices could be used to deliver cancer prevention agents or anticancer vaccines for the prevention and control.

2

The possibility these systems could be used to implant sensors that could detect cancer-associated biomarkers or contrast agents that may improve the resolution of cancer down to the single cell level are just a few of the possibilities for imaging and early detection. This could even lead to the development of "smart" therapeutic devices that could deliver medications for treating conditions such as pain, nausea, loss of appetite, and depression.

So what is nanotechnology anyway? Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. This involves the use of structures between 1 and 100 nanometers and the development of materials of that size, a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. To put that in perspective a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick. (Wikipedia)

Cancer develops when abnormal cells in the body begin to grow and spread very rapidly. Cancer cells are not very different from a healthy cell, this makes cancer treatment difficult. Because most cancer treatments kill some of the healthy cells along with the bad cells it makes patients sick. New technologies are being sought to eliminate these drawbacks from current cancer treatments.

Nanoscale devices have the potential to change cancer therapy for the better and dramatically increase highly effective treatments used today, as well as lessen the ill effects of current treatments. Nanoscale devices could serve as customizable drug delivery vehicles. These vehicles could deliver large doses of chemotherapy agents into cancerous cells while sparing healthy cells. This would greatly reduce or eliminate the side effects that exist now. Research has shown that nanoscale delivery devices can target cancer cells. This is done by attaching antibodies that bind specifically to molecules found on the surfaces of cancer cells. Once they

3

reach their target, the nanoparticles are taken into cells which could deliver anticancer drugs directly to cells. Eventually it should be possible to kill the cancer cells specifically and leave the cells of the surrounding healthy tissue alone.

There is also technology that involves gold-coated glass spheres which are about 100 nanometers in diameter. These gold-coated glass spheres enter tumors by passing through blood vessels that feed the cancers. Once enough of this material has accumulated in the tumor, scientists can shine a laser through the skin, heating up the gold particles and burning away the cancer. This technique was developed at the University of Texas Health Science Center. So far it has worked in animal experiments and