Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

snappedscissors t1_j7ffkl4 wrote

Reply to comment by jpk195 in Sound Waves Trigger Anti-Cancer Immune Responses in Mice by dissolutewastrel

My favorite local tissue destruction idea is to tag iron nano particles with appropriate molecules to go stick to cancer cells, then stick the patient in an MRI machine. (Was it an MRI machine?) The particles heat up and kill the nearby cells, but the rest of the patient is unharmed.

50

dkysh t1_j7fq4mw wrote

I suspect these "physical disturbance" techniques could cause part of the cells on the principal tumor to detach, becoming potential metastases.

"Conventional" cancer treatments either make sure that the cell commits suicide/the immune system kills it, or remove the tumor from the body.

35

SOL-Cantus t1_j7g5byw wrote

This is 100% correct. We have a vast array of mechanical means to kill tumors, but very few pass the extra test of preventing therapy induced metastasis or other significantly detrimental damage. We're approaching a point where combination products may start to be viable, but that's "approaching" in the sense that the technology is just now becoming viable for further testing. We're nowhere near marketing of "nano tech" solutions (as many silicon valley types like to claim/dream up).

Edit: An addendum is that one of the biggest revelations these days isn't in treatment, but in the ability to track abnormal cell features. If you can target cancerous cells for uptake of specific elements/molecules, you can far more easily deal with larger growths well before their malignancy spreads further. This, however, only works for well defined tumors. Once you get into things like lymphomas, you're in a very different ballpark.

22

ThrowAway1638497 t1_j7flsuy wrote

I believe it was a microwave with gold nano particles. But it was years ago I first heard of it. probably went through a few iterations.

5

cygnoids t1_j7fndcc wrote

The do this currently with gold nanoparticles and directed light. Unfortunately, the light can only penetrate a few millimeters into the tissue so it’s not effective for most cancers. It’s called photothermal therapy.

New chemistries for PTT have been developed that can penetrate further into the tissue but still wouldn’t work for most cancers

3

snappedscissors t1_j7h445e wrote

I have a cat that was used to test some iron based ones. I’m not sure if it ended up working well enough in that for. The cat didn’t have cancer, they were targeting reproductive tissue before spaying surgically to be able to examine the outcome in the tissue.

1

DistortedVoid t1_j7j23uo wrote

There's a form of that already in existence, lookup microwave ablation.

2