Cancer therapy cuts side effects of chemotherapy

An Australian team of scientists had developed a new technique that could one day be used to treat cancer patients, without the harful effects of chemothrerapy.

By using nanotechnology, they have created tiny particles which are induced into a patient to attack cancer cells and leave the healthy tissues untouched.

What kind of implications does this have for the future of cancer and the infected people. Does this have the potential to end the disease once and for all, or will this simply stave it off for the timebeing as it mutates into another form?

The Australian team has used nanotechnology to create tiny particles which specifically attack cancer cells, but leave healthy tissue unaffected.

The particles - or mini-cells - are tagged with anti-cancer antibodies so they zero in on their target.

It is hoped the technique could treat tumours in the breast, ovaries, colon and lungs.

So far it has been used in mice and dogs, and the researchers plan to begin human trials shortly.

Traditional chemotherapy typically involves subjecting the patient's entire body to powerful drugs, which can cause a range of severe side-effects.

Don, the 'magic bullet' method of cancer treatment has been around in one form or another for quite a while. I would like to think that the treatment is available for all people. I cannot imagine that the costs are high for manufacture of antibodies from hybridomas and for the nanoparticles. However, I will be cynical and surmise that the technology will become a commercial entity out of the hands of patients from the poor corners of the Earth.