The Wide Angle: 10 Ways Nanotechnology Battles CancerBy Jonathan Strickland, HowStuffWorks.com
Side Effects Nanotechnology offers the promise of targeted treatment, which could drastically reduce side effects from chemotherapy.
5. DELIVER DRUGS Drug treatment for cancer patients is not pleasant. We've all heard of the various physical reactions people have to chemotherapy. Chemotherapy targets cells that divide rapidly. Unfortunately, that includes more than just cancer cells. Cells in the lining of the mouth, bone marrow, skin and in other areas can be affected by the chemicals in a chemotherapy cocktail. Some side effects are so serious that the patient must seek treatment to manage them. But what if you could design a particle that is small enough to penetrate a cancer cell and release just enough medicine to kill that cell alone? What if you could inject millions of these nanoparticles into a patient and treat cancer on a cellular or even molecular level? That's something several cancer nanotechnology task forces are attempting to develop. One clear benefit of this approach is a drastic reduction of side effects from chemotherapy. With targeted treatment, only the cancerous cells would receive medication. Doctors could use much smaller doses of medication to treat the cancer because the nanoparticles would bring the medicine exactly where it was needed. "Every patient knows side effects -- they lose their hair in 10 days," says Nie. "It's not easy. And they cannot walk because their nerves [are] damaged, they cannot eat because fast-growing cells in their stomachs and intestines are being damaged." He continues, "The idea is whether nanotechnology can be used to target the drugs only to the tumor cells very much like a guided bomb. You only bomb your enemy, not your friends. It's a wonderful concept, but to actually do it in a human patient is very challenging." Before this dream can become reality, nanotechnologists will have to develop a reliable method for creating nanoparticles that can seek out and bind with cancer cells. We may still be years away from seeing an effective demonstration of this technique outside an in vitro lab trial. More on How Tech Works from |
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