Nanotech for cancer

Start by reading this good article outlining the current state of research surrounding nanoparticles and their potential for cancer therapeutics. Then check out more details for the following topics.

  1. Nanoshells for cancer
    1. This professor's company is soon to start a Phase I clinical trial using her gold nanoshells to ablate head and neck cancers
    2. Nanospectra Biosciences is working with university researchers to use liposomes to deliver pinpoint radiation to head and neck tumors. Clinical trial to begin early 2010.
  2. Radiofrequency ablation (Kanzius / Curley)
  3. Liposomal P53 therapy (Dr. Esther Chang)
    1. Tumor-Targeted Liposomes Making Clinical Headway 
      Dr. Esther Chang's liposomal solution seems to target tumor as well as metastasis! She talks about delivering P53 to augment conventional therapy. Check out her NCI talk at
  4. Carbon nanotube heat ablation (Dr. Hongjie Dai)
    1. Carbon Nanotubes Deliver Payload, Cancer Cell-Killing Heat
      Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, Hongjie Dai, Ph.D., and his colleagues describe how carbon nanotubes can be targeted to cancer cells growing in culture and used to either deliver DNA to the cell nucleus or kill the cell with high temperature. The key to either of these actions is that carbon nanotubes naturally absorb light in the near-infrared region of the light spectrum. Near-infrared light holds particular promise in nanotechnology-enabled cancer therapy because neither biological molecules nor water absorbs light in this frequency range, which enables near-infrared light to pass through tissues to reach tumor-targeted nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes.