Treatment could have the same effect in humans, scientists say
Updated: 1:16 p.m. ET July 27, 2005
LONDON - A smart anti-cancer bomb that acts like a Trojan horse can penetrate deep into tumors where it explodes and destroys cancerous cells without harming healthy ones, scientists said on Wednesday.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who devised the molecular size bomb tested it in mice with skin or lung cancer. Mice given the treatment lived more than three times longer than untreated rodents.
The scientists believe it could have the same effect in humans.We’re quite hopeful and optimistic that as we translate this into humans the results pan out as they have in animals,” Professor Ram Sasisekharan, of MIT’s Biological Engineering Division, said in an interview.
The smart bomb uses nanotechnology which manipulates materials on a molecular or atomic scale, to deliver chemotherapy drugs to destroy the tumor and anti-angiogenesis agents to block its blood supply.
After the bomb, which is like a balloon within a balloon, is injected into the bloodstream it travels to the tumor and burrows deep inside. The outer membrane then disintegrates and releases an anti-angiogenesis drug so the blood vessels feeding the tumor collapse.
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Hope in cancer treatment: Cancer bomb zaps tumor cells in mice
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