Houston scientists have devised an ultra-small “smart drug” that eludes all biological barriers and withholds the release of its poison until it is inside the heart of cancer cells that have spread to the lungs, one of the primary causes of cancer deaths.
In a mouse study published this week, the nanotechnology-based strategy destroyed a particularly lethal type of breast cancer after it reached the lung, a stage of the disease considered almost untreatable. The team hopes to test the strategy on patients next year, and other scientists said the findings should stimulate research with additional drugs and cancer types.
