cancer research

I read an article today about a new treatment that uses nanotechnology to kill cancer cells. The procedure works by inserting nanotubes into cancer cells, then exposing them to near-infrared laser light -- this heats up the rods, which heats up the cell and kills it. Cells without the rods simply let the light pass.

The trick, as has always been the case with cancer treatments, is how to target cancer cells specifically while leaving normal cells alone. Chemotherapy goes after rapidly-reproducing cells whether they're cancerous or not, which is why patients often lose hair and encounter various other side effects (including, oh gee, more cancer down the road!). Radiation therapy damages the DNA of cells near the tumor area, and healthy cells are able to repair the damage while cancer cells aren't specialized/developed enough to do so and eventually die out upon passing on the mutations through reproduction.

This nanotech treatment takes advantage of cancer cells being covered with folate (folic acid) receptors. By coating the nanotubules with folate, they are able to bind to cancer cells but not healthy cells.

One might ask why this property of folate identification was not used previously to differentiate cancer from normal cells. Methotrexate has been used to inhibit the metabolism of folic acid, which is present in rapidly-reproducing cells. But again, the problem is that other cells in the body need folic acid. What makes the nanotech different (if I'm reading this correctly) is that the nanotubules make their way into the cells that are covered on the outside with folic acid, rather than eliminating the folic acid altogether. That is, the folate is only used as the identifier, rather than as the object of attack, and previously, we had nothing to do with this piece of information. Now with nanotechnology, we're able to insert thousands of rods half the width of a DNA molecule into a single cell.

The treatment is still in its early stages, and has only been used in lab cultures, but hopefully it can be applied to humans as well. They are already trying to tailor it to treat lymphoma in mice.

It's reassuring to think, should I have a recurrence of cancer later in life, that I may not need to have chemo again or a stem cell transplant.

"So, a round of applause for...this inanimate carbon rod!"