Would you believe someone if they told you that there is a type cancer therapy that is more effective and has less negative effects than chemotherapy, yet is less commonly used?
Cancer is characterized by the rapid division of cells anywhere in the body. Every day, your body produces many potentially cancerous cells that are later destroyed. Moreover, every year, over 10 million people are diagnosed with cancer. With such a large amount of diagnoses, cancer remains one of leading causes of human death as it is generally incurable due to the metastasis of cancer cells.
Microtubules in breast cancer cells leading to rapid cell division.
Credit: National cancer institute. Downloaded from: Unsplash.com
An article by Ranjita Misra and her research team describes a new yet promising technique in cancer treatment and early detection known as nanotechnology cancer therapy. Today, treating cancer through radiation and chemotherapy is the most popular option. Chemotherapy has numerous negative effects like drug resistance and an insufficient amount of drug reaching tumour sites. This can lead to insufferable side effects as both cancerous cells and healthy cells are destroyed.
The use of nanotechnology in cancer therapy involves the production of small particles called nanoparticles that are effective in transporting anticancer drugs to target cells while minimizing damage to healthy cells. Nanoparticles target cancer cells through active targeting and passive targeting. Examples of nanoparticles approved by the FDA include nanoparticle-liposome and albumin nanoparticles. Liposomes in particular are vital in nanotechnology cancer therapy as drugs transported through nanoparticle-liposomes have shown to have significantly longer half lives, upwards of 55 hours. This is important as the drug is able to stay in the body for a longer time meaning less drug is needed, which reduces damage to healthy cells. Another reason liposomes are favourable is because of their composition. Their hydrophobic composition allows appreciable amounts of anticancer drug to reach the tumour site as the body cannot destroy the drug . This is important in cancer therapy as damaging healthy cells due to excess drug is the main reason why chemotherapy has numerous side effects. The mechanisms and benefits of nanotechnology cancer therapy talked about above are explained in more detail by Joy Wolfram (2018) in the video below.
TEDtalk by Joy Wolfram in 2018 about nanotechnology in cancer therapy.
Liposome nanoparticle structure that is used for cancer therapy.
Credit: ScienceDirect. Downloaded from Unsplash.com
This breakthrough in cancer therapy shows that science is forever evolving and that in the future it is possible there will be a cure for cancer. Although nanotechnology cancer therapy is a relatively new area of research it shows tremendous potential and over time it is expected that larger advancements in preventing and treating cancer will be seen. Lastly, it is believed by researchers that nanotechnology cancer therapy has the potential to be the main form of treating cancer in the future due to the fact that it has less side effects and is more effective than chemotherapy (Gharpure et al. 2015).
–Balkaran Dhaliwal
