Revolutionary new cancer treatment being developed in the US

ITN [06/02/13]

By Lauren Hood

US scientists are developing a new therapy, known as nano bubbles, which they claim will kill cancer cells and improve the way the disease is treated.

The new therapy has as high survival rates as standard treatments of surgery and chemotherapy, which are often costly and physically stressful, according to developers. 

Major hospitals in Texas, including Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, and MD Anderson Cancer Centre, are working together on this research.

The goal set by Rice University scientist Dmitri Lapotko is to develop microscopic bubbles, or nano bubbles, which are 10,000 times smaller than human hair.

"When the technology will get to the clinic and hopefully it will happen in several years, we will improve patients' survival rate; we will improve patients' quality of life; and we will make the treatment much shorter and much more comfortable," said Lapotko.

Gold nano particles will be injected into patients, which penetrate only cancer cells, and once activated by a laser, create tiny explosions that kill individual cancer cells without harming nearby healthy ones.

A year of treatment using the chemo-drug Doxil could cost patients $100,000. Nano treatment can run just fraction of that. 

Lapotko said this new type of nano medicine has already shown success in treating head and neck cancers, and prostate cancer in animals. He hopes testing on human cells can begin in near future.