Nanotechnology Used To Kill Cancer
to_kallon writes "A company called Kereos is developing a pair of nanotechnologies to identify tumors that measure just 1 mm in diameter, then kill them with a tiny but precise amount of a chemotherapy drug."
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Maybe you're just a ridiculous nit picker.
4 /0 1/29/cz_jw_0129soapbox.html
The submission didn't say its being using to fight cancer "in humans".
James Baker, at the University of Michigan, has done something similar and has dramatically improved targeting of chemotherapy (30X improvement) in animal studies. Another link:
http://www.forbes.com/investmentnewsletters/200
The article doesn't spell it out but if Kereos is starting human trials in 2005 they must be doing animal trials with some success at this point too. If they are killing cancer in animals with the technique then the wording in the submission is completely acceptable. If Kereos isn't showing success in animals with the technique then I'd be inclined to say the whole story is more than a little premature, but you can turn to Baker's work instead and he is fighting cancer, in animals, using nanotechnology.
@de_machina
The only problem is that we've been able to cure cancer in mice for over a decade. There aren't many cancers (except the wacky ones we give by knockout/transgenic technology) that we can't cure in mice. The trouble is that when you do the same thing in humans, people either balk at it (viral delivery) or develop serious comlications when you try it (most cytokine therapies) or simply don't work (p53 adenosviral selection therapies, so far). This could be great, but it may just be another way to cure cancer.....in mice.
There is a reason for everything. Sometimes that reason just sucks.