Slashdot Mirror
Magnetic Nanoparticles Fry Tumors
sciencehabit writes "In a new study, a team found that injecting mice with tiny magnets and cranking up the heat eliminated tumors from the animals' bodies with no apparent side effects. The nanoparticles heat up when a magnetic field is applied, and because they are only injected into tumors, only cancerous cells get fried. Researchers hope the technique, known as magnetic hyperthermia, could be used in cancer patients, obviating the need for chemotherapy and radiation."
"In a new study, a team found that injecting mice with tiny magnets and cranking up the heat created a new breed of super mice that banded together to fight super villain mutants
-- Flame me and I will happily flame you back. Bring it!
What's Magneto's back story again?
Anything that cures a cancer is a super win.
However, this thing requires that you know from outside the body exactly where the tumor is, so that you can target the injection.
In order to do that you need (near) real-time imaging, and that means CT scan (you're not doing an invasive procedure with magnetic fluid anywhere near a running MRI).
CT scans are made of multiple X-rays, meaning a much higher total dose of radiation than your average X-ray.
And X-rays cause cancer. So you're trading one certain tumor for the risk of more tumors. Still a win, if this treatment is itself highly effective.
The problem is targeting only the tumour with the pill contents. If we had the ability to deliver oral drugs -only- to a tumour, then we could just use targeted chemo treatments and everything would be fine. Unfortunately, it's not that simple, so we need alternatives.
Part of the problem with turmours is that cutting anything out can spread the tumour by leaving mobile particles and injecting drugs directly allows them to spread to other (life-essential) organs.
Because these magnetic particles are less mobile than drugs, there is a good chance they'll tend to stay put and only damage the tumour and local tissue, rather than harming the organism as a whole.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
To my way of thinking, if the tumor is bad enough that it can swallow a pill, you may as well just give up.
There are a few problems with this: 1-you need to know where the cancer is (so why not remove it?) so it can't be used on spreading multi organ cancers 2-you need to stick a needle into it (this isn't safe for some parts of the body) 3-it won't always get all the cancer, just the parts you can reach so this will probably leave cancerous cells in the body afterwards that will settle into some other organ to grow.
What can't they do?
Also, I prefer the egg sandwich from the gas station approach.... well, at least if the cancer was in my pelvic splanchnic ganglion
Not as hard as you think.
Many existing cancer therapies are remarkably targeted. We've been able to take advantage of the fact that cancerous cells often exhibit abnormal cell surface markers. Monoclonal antibodies would be engineered to manifest high affinity for these abnormal markers. These antibodies can be bio-chemically fitted with highly toxic drugs that would kill the locally cancerous cells while minimally damaging farther healthy cells.
The thing I'm trying to figure out is how you can safely remove the nano-particles from the body after their mission is complete.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
If you've got an inoperable tumour - and this technique leaves one cancer cell behind - you're onto a fucking winner.
That's not a big thing. We've had ways to do this for decades. More than 20 years ago I did work in Photodynamic Therapy (injecting dyes into tumors. When you shine a light on the dyes, they produce oxygen radicals which kill the cells). We have lots and lots of ways to kill a specific tumor. This is just one more of many wrenches in our toolbox.
The hard part is designing a therapy which destroys only tumor cells, while leaving normal cells alone. Preserving needed tissue in critical spots (the brain, etc), while allowing it to hunt down individual rogue cells which may have metastasized and be trying to start a new tumor elsewhere in the body.
That's the the are where we need to focus.
My father had a similar procedure to wipe out his prostate cancer. Metal beads injected into tumor, three low-power radio beams focused on the target, beams combine very focally, beads heat, tumor burns away. Macrophages clean up the mess. Dad totally cancer-free for a decade now and has none of the side effects of surgery. thanks University of Virginia!
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
Thing the first: In TFA, they tested this with brain cancer tumors transplanted onto mice, and the result was a 100% cure. Full remission.
Second thing: If this takes billions of cancer cells and reduces that number to a few hundred, then it's a treatment and not a cure. But still would be massively useful.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Not necessarily?
If you use nanoparticles that carry an antibody tag that will collect and/or attach to the tumors, you can just flood the body with them for a few days. Wait for the overflow to pass out, then turn on the switch.
*VORP!*
All done in a few shots.
[End Of Line]
That has been done, several times, with varying results. Search for cancer vaccine.
Rethinking email
Part of her research involves taking human breast cancer cells and treating them with a potent form of vitamin D. Within a few days, half the cancer cells shriveled up and died
This kind of thing always gets me chuckling. You realize that the number of compounds you can throw at tumor cells in a petri dish and see them die is orders of magnitude bigger than the the ones where the action is highly selective, where the dosage required to maintain that level at the site is safe.