Nano: The New Nemesis Of Cancer

Nanotechnology in itself is a sheer revolution. The biggest impact of nanotechnology in the future is expected to be in the arena of medical science, especially in the treatment of cancerdefine. Now a nanotech approach to overcome the resistance of some cancer cells to radiationdefine therapy has been successfully tested in mice.

Radiationdefine therapy is a time-honored and effective component of modern cancerdefine therapy, but its ultimate utility is limited by the fact that some cancer cells are resistant to ionizing radiation.

Researchers at the University of Texas now believe that nanotechnology can aid radiation treatments tremendously. It has been discovered that penetrating tumors with gold nano articles and near-infrared radiation, dramatically improves the response of tumors to radiation therapy.

Nanotechnology works by inducing a mild increase in temperature, in the tumors using gold nano particles and infrared light . This temperature rise increases the blood flow throughout the tumors, particularly those regions where a disrupted network of blood vessels cause unavailability of oxygen.

Oncologists are also working on finding striking new ways to use nanotechnology to diagnose and treat ovarian cancer. At the Rush University Medical Center, in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory and Illinois Institute of Technology, state of the art nanotechnology is being employed to improve the health of women.

By exploiting the unique properties of nanotechnology, oncologists are attempting to detect ovarian cancer at the earliest. This is being done by using highly sensitive imaging tools and developing drug carriers that can deliver therapeutic agents inside the tumor cells.

A nanotechnology based approach is needed because diagnosis of early stage cancer requires the detection and characterization of very small quantities of biomarker. Nanoscale devices can perform tasks inside the body that would otherwise not be possible, such as entering most cells and moving through the walls of blood vessels. As a result, nanoscale devices can readily interact with individual molecules on both the cell surface and within the cell, in ways that do not alter the behavior of those molecules.

The development of a smart probe and carrier complex will provide significant advantage to the researchers as they can locate the tumor, monitor the drug delivery vehicle and control drug release using imaging techniques.

Oncologists all over the globe, relentlessly research on methodologies for early detection of cancer and precise localization of cancer therapeutics (radiation/chemotherapy) with minimal adverse effects to healthy tissues. Since the previous decade, the fast growing research in nanotechnology have been transformed into nanotech bases, products
show promising possibilities of achieving this dream of every oncologistdefine.