Nanoishcheyki
Light-emitting nanoparticles are able to detect cancer even at the earliest stage and track the spread of metastases throughout the body. These are the results of the work of a group of researchers from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
The new technology will help detect tumors at an early stage, which is associated with timely treatment and increased patient survival.
Currently, the most reliable ways to detect cancer are imaging diagnostic methods, including computer and magnetic resonance imaging, and biopsy (examination of a tumor sample). But all these methods may be useless when the tumor or metastasis is still very small.
The new nanoparticles will help doctors to detect the tumor or its metastases in a timely manner and adjust the treatment plan. They are particles of rare earth metal (which, the authors of the article do not specify), encapsulated in spheres of blood protein – albumin. Injected intravenously, they circulate with blood through the body and emit short-wave infrared radiation when a tumor is detected. Wherever the cancer cell migrates, the nanoparticles will follow it and notify doctors about it in real time.
A study was conducted on mice in which breast cancer was induced. Nanoparticles were able to detect tumor metastasis to the adrenal glands and femur.
Nanoparticles found the tumor much faster than MRI. Translated into "human" time, the difference was several months, which could be spent on effective treatment of cancer at an early stage.
The technology can be used to detect more than 100 types of cancer. According to forecasts, it will become available within the next 5 years.
In the future, nanoparticles with rare earth metals can be used in oncosurgery to mark tissues that need to be removed, or to evaluate the effectiveness of immunotherapy for oncological diseases.
Article by Harini Kantamneni et al. Surveillance nanotechnology for multi-organ cancer metastases is published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on Rutgers Today: Faster, More Accurate Cancer Detection Using Nanoparticles, Rutgers-Led Study Finds.