Nanoparticle Smart Bombs Used To Target Cancer Cells, University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Study

Smart bombs consisting of microscopic particles can curb the deadly spread of cancer, a team reports today. The smart bombs are nanoparticles, that is particles at the length scale of a billionth of a metre or so, and can be used to target malignant cancer cells as they move through the body, a process called metastasis that seeds new tumours throughout the body. A new treatment strategy using polymer particles 100 billionths of a metre across to bombard tumour cells with anti-cancer drugs leads to good results, using significantly lower doses of toxic chemotherapy, with less "collateral damage" to surrounding tissue, researchers report today.

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