Image: Human breast cancer cell tagged with quantum dots
Cancer Nanomedicine is developing to cover a wide range of applications from imaging, diagnosing to treating cancers with targeted therapies. Cancer Nanomedicine works on the theory that nanometer sized particles of gold, nanomicelles and quantum dots (QDs) have unique functional properties that differ from other available discrete [...]
Bioengineers at Duke University have developed a simple and importantly inexpensive method for loading nano-scale delivery vehicles with cancer drug payloads. This nanoformulation was shown to eliminate tumours after a single treatment. In a great step forward for limiting toxicity the nano-scale delivery vehicle breaks down into harmless byproducts after delivery of the drug.
These nano-delivery systems [...]
Adjuvants are substances that are used to increase the immune response warranted by the immune system when used in combination with a vaccine. But the adjuvants are not themselves immunogenic.
So far due to safety concerns there is only one adjuvant that has been approved for human use in the united states. This is aluminum hydroxide [...]
Albumin, a tiny particle found readily in the blood is being used to carry radioactive isotopes to sites of cancerous tumors in the body. With the added benefit of avoiding many of the side-effects of conventional radiotherapies.
In the current issue of the International Journal of Nanotechnology and Biomaterials, Virginia Nazarica Borza et al, from the [...]
A new method to enhance drug delivery has been developed at UC Santa Barbara. The method utilizes a biological system of gaining access to cells.
One of the most difficult barriers to cross in drug delivery is the movement of the drug from the circulation into the tissue. This technique provides a ay of achieving this.
A [...]
When a patient presents with brain cancer the biggest issue to circumvent is the delicacy of the brain and treating it. After all what is effectively being done is killing brain tissue that has become ‘diseased’ by transformation into cancerous cells. So whichever method of cancer treatment you use there are going to be inherent [...]
Researchers from MIT and the University of California have developed nanoparticles (NPs) that are biodegradable, break down readily in the body once the drug payload has been delivered and are easily excreted by the kidneys.
In-vivo tests have so far shown that the NPs can deliver the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin into tumors and can then degrade [...]
Brain cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, as it is one of the hardest to treat. Treatment usually involves a surgeon having to perform invasive surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible. This is made even more difficult by issues with medically imagin brain tumors. This is becasue the imaging performed [...]
Pancreatic cancer has a very low 5 year survival rate at only around 5%. This is due to the presenting symptoms, which are not normally diagnosed as pancreatic cancer until the diseases later stages. At this point chemotherapies and surgery are largely ineffective.
Researchers at Emory Univeristy in the United States have created nanotools that specifically [...]
