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Thursday, 7th August 2008 (5048 views)

Researchers from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre have turned to gold nanoshells as part of a method to destroy cancer cells.

RJ Stafford, from the centre, said the team had concluded that using "magnetic resonance temperature imaging and gold nanoshells hold the very real possibility of meeting the long-sought goal of improving the precision of thermal ablation, while sparing healthy tissue".

The team worked with Nanospectra Biosciences to inject gold nanoshells into canine models of brain cancer.

Once inside, the nanoshells found and were absorbed by the tumour cells. After this had finished, the scientists found they could then irradiate the tumour cell with a laser light without damaging the surrounding healthy tissue.

The treatment has been developed as a way to fight cancer tumours which do not have clear borders and so do not respond well to conventional surgery.

Gold nanoshells - which are very small spheres of glass covered in gold - were created in Houston ten years ago, according to the Houston Chronicle.

 

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