Nanotech delivering drugs in to cancer cells?

Two people I know well have recently been diagnosed with cancer. As has happened before in my observation of those with this disease, it’s the chemotherapy or radiation treatments that are devastating…not the cancer itself or the drugs to kill those aberrant cells. Losing one’s hair, a compromised immune system and crushing fatigue are but a few of the big impacts to either of these approaches.

Several years ago I read a book about the early days of pharmacology. Seems that discovery’s were made that found certain toxic chemicals — in low doses — penetrated cells. Forward thinking scientists surmised that drugs could be carried in to cancer cells and thus kill them. Unfortunately, even these low dose toxic chemicals are quite destructive to a human being.

Remembering an article I’d read some time ago about nanotechnology research that was being targeted at using this tiny technology to “stick” to targeted cancer cells (delivering the cancer killing drugs directly to where they’re needed), I did a Google search and discovered several very interesting articles. A new article published just last month caught my eye.

But the biggest “whoa” came when I clicked a link and stumbled in to a fascinating web site delivered by the National Cancer Institute “NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer” organization. Their mission?

To help meet the goal of eliminating suffering and death from cancer, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, is engaged in efforts to harness the power of nanotechnology to radically change the way we diagnose, treat and prevent cancer.

The NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer is a comprehensive, systematized initiative encompassing the public and private sectors, designed to accelerate the application of the best capabilities of nanotechnology to cancer.