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First Anti-Cancer Nanoparticle Trial On Humans a Success

Posted by samzenpus on from the smallest-medicine dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Nanoparticles have been able to disable cancerous cells in living human bodies for the first time. The results are perfect so far, killing tumors with no side effects whatsoever. Mark Davis, project leader at CalTech, says that 'it sneaks in, evades the immune system, delivers the siRNA, and the disassembled components exit out.' Truly amazing."

5 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. Re:CmdrTaco's hung like a toddler by binarylarry · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is science, not magic.

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    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  2. Re:Targetting by alexborges · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They have RNA that attaches to cancerous and only cancerous cells. Of course, there are types of cancer that wont "bind" with this thingies, but supposedly, if I remeber correctly, they are the rarest.

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    NO SIG
  3. Re:Too small a sample size by Barny · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not to mention there are now at least 15 extremely happy people out there :)

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    /me sighs
  4. Re:Too small a sample size by chowdahhead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's a phase-I trial, it only confirms safety already established in animal models and kinetics. Phase-II and phase-III trials, much larger in scale, assess efficacy and optimum dosing. That will tell us if this can be more effective than traditional chemotherapy (possible) and monoclonal chemotherapy (much more difficult to predict).

  5. Who cares? by Weaselmancer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who cares how the particles get inside the cancer cells? Does it matter if we use microscopic needles and inject every single cancer cell or just throw a bunch of square pegs at square holes and hope for the best?

    The end result is that the medicine winds up where it should be, and doesn't seem to be accumulating where it shouldn't.

    BTW, in the above referenced Nature article it says this:

    When the components are mixed together in water, they assemble into particles about 70 nanometres in diameter. The researchers can then administer the nanoparticles into the bloodstream of patients, where the particles circulate until they encounter 'leaky' blood vessels that supply the tumours with blood. The particles then pass through the vessels to the tumour, where they bind to the cell and are then absorbed.

    So maybe that counts as targeted. Maybe not. I don't care either way - it works, regardless of semantics.

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    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.