FollowNew science discoveries, such as a 30,000 year old virus, are being made every day, but in the field of cancer research, latest cancer news means saving lives. The latest cancer news reveals one of the most amazing types of treatments to ever come to light: light-activated drug delivery. Yes, it sounds a bit sci-fi and it probably is but that’s what makes it so innovative and great. It promises to deliver the medicine inside the patient’s body, exactly where the drug is needed. No more affecting the surrounding organs and tissues and causing so many side-effects.
When it comes to cancer treatment, this is excellent news! But how can this be achieved? Well, get ready for another sci-fi bit: nanoparticles are doing the carrying of the drug! The method uses nanoparticles that are the size of cells to carry the cancer drugs (chemotherapy) directly to the cancer cells and then release them when activated by a laser in the infrared wavelength. They can also absorb energy from the light that is penetrating the tissue.
The even greater thing about this latest cancer news is that the nanoparticles are light-activated and fluorescent, which means that they can be traced and their progress tracked. This ability to track a targeted therapy is forming a new branch of diagnostic therapy called theranostics.
This latest cancer news tells us that cancer treatment is going to get easier on the patient. It will greatly reduce the side effects of the treatment and increase the potency of the drug.
Latest Cancer News – Light-Activated Nanoparticles
What are these nanoparticles made of? They’re made of silica and have thousands of pores in which they hold the drugs. In order to stop the chemotherapy drugs from basically leaking from the pores while the nanoparticles are traveling through the human body, the pores are capped with tiny valves. These nanovalves are the ones that respond to the light trigger which causes them to open up and release the medicine.
The treatment was tested on human breast cancer cells and it was a success. The downside of this is that the light triggering only works up to a range of 4 cm of tissue which limits the application of this treatment for now, to only tumors which are located on the surface of the skin, such as breast cancer tumors, ovarian or colon.
If you would like to donate for cancer research you can do it right here! It’s because of donations like yours that these discoveries are possible.
