Gold "nano-bullets" shoot down tumours

[Iron Star]

Gold "nano-bullets" shoot down tumours


13:02 04 November 03

NewScientist.com news service

Gold "nano-bullets" could seek and destroy inoperable human cancers, suggest new studies by US scientists.

The tiny silica particles are plated with gold and heat up when near infrared light (NIR) is shone on them. This kills the cancer cells. Tests on human breast cancers, both in the test tube and in tumours in mice, were highly successful, the researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The nanoshells are designed to absorb near infrared light and convert that light to heat," explains Jennifer West, who led the study at Rice University, Houston, Texas. This is possible because the body's normal tissues are "essentially transparent" to NIR.

West says the potential benefits of the treatment should be that, unlike other cancer treatments such as surgery, it would be non-invasive. Both NIR and the nanoshells are completely harmless by themselves, she says.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?...p?id=ns99994341

[Exploited Class]

I read this news when it came out and I have to say that this is maybe the best news for cancer treatment thus far that I have seen. Anything has to be better than poisoning the body with chemo treatments or using giant radiation like guns to zap the body.

Nanotechnology is going to save a lot of people, now that we can successfully create small devices on the atomic scale, we will be able to beat tumors out of the system. I might be talking out my ass but I don't think there is going to much of anything we can't do now, especially when considering we also have broken the gene code. The combination.... ahhhhh! So cool.

[Corvus Corax]

It is certainly a good start, but does this only destroy the tumors, or the whole cancer?

The next logical step forward is to try and find a vaccine which blocks certain genetic forms of cancer, so we can not only treat it, but prevent it.

C.C

[Mr Mojo Risin]

I would think that this depends on both the type and stage that the cancer is in. If the cancer is malignant and spread throughout the body, I think it would be beyond treatment even by the nano 'bullets'. But for any benign tumor, or a malignant tumor in its early stages, i would guess it would be effective. Basically, the NIR rays must be focused on a small area, so if all the cancerous tissue is in a small area (The tumor) it would be possible to target it.

As for your vaccine idea, I'm not sure if there is any genetic structure which always means cancer, since cancer by definition is just a random mutation. I suppose that if a gene for hyperreplication is isolated and repressed by some chemical, cancer could be stopped, but the vaccine would have to be made constantly