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Cancer -- New Treatments

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2005 Dec. ~ 2006 Feb.: Health Center: Cancer -- New Treatments users admin

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Herckleperckle
Member

11-20-2003

Wednesday, August 03, 2005 - 4:50 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Herckleperckle a private message Print Post    
Source: Ivanhoe.com
Reported August 3, 2005



New Technology Kills Cancer Cells


(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new nanotech-laser treatment developed by Stanford scientists destroys cancer cells, while leaving healthy ones unharmed.

"One of the longstanding problems in medicine is how to cure cancer without harming normal body tissue," says Hangjie Dai, an associate professor of chemistry at Stanford. "Standard chemotherapy destroys cancer cells and normal cells alike. That's why patients often lose their hair and suffer numerous other side effects. For us, the Holy Grail would be finding a way to selectively kill cancer cells and not damage healthy ones."

During the study, the scientists used carbon nanotubes -- artificial rods half the width of a DNA molecule.

Dai says, "An interesting property of carbon nanotubes is that they absorb near-infrared light waves, which are slightly longer than visible rays of light and pass harmlessly through our cells."

Shining a near-infrared light beam on a carbon nanotube causes the electrons to become excited and release energy in the form of heat. The study showed that when a solution of carbon nanotubes were placed in cells and radiated by the laser, the heat quickly destroyed the cells. To guarantee they did not destroy healthy cells, the scientists coated the nanotubes with folate molecules. These molecules act as receptors for a vitamin on the surface of a cancer cell and only attract the diseased cells.

The Stanford scientists found that selectively delivering the carbon nanotubes worked. After the folate-coated nanotubes were planted inside of the cancer cells, they could shine the laser on the cells, heat them up, and kill them without harming the healthy tissue.

Dai says, "Nanotechnology has long been known for its applications in electronics. But this experiment is a wonderful example of nanobiotechnology -- using the unique properties of nanomaterials to advance biology and medicine."


SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, published online August 1, 2005


Cablejockey
Member

12-27-2001

Monday, November 07, 2005 - 5:59 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Cablejockey a private message Print Post    
Here's more news on this new technology http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,69406,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_5
It sounds so promising I hope we hear more about this soon.