Nanotechnology is Revolutionizing Cancer Treatments

Emerging breakthroughs in nanotechnology in 2023 are revolutionizing how scientists will treat cancer in the future. According to the Institute for Molecular Bioscience scientists are studying how to use nanoparticles as cancer drug delivery systems. The Stevens Institute of Technology and the Hackensack Meridian Health developed a cancer drug delivery system using gold nanoparticles, which they packed with cancer-fighting drugs and sealed with a hydraulic acid coating to ensure the payload does not release the medication until it binds to the cancer cell receptors. 

According to the National Cancer Institute nanotechnology applications to cancer treatment extend beyond just drug delivery systems. It has the potential to be used in immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. The University of Washington’s Center for Multiple Myeloma Nanotherapy(CMMN) is developing a photodynamic therapy, which would allow doctors to reach cancer cells in bone marrow. CMMN is working on a project using CMYC-Max nanoparticles to image and target Myeloma. Dr. Lanza and Michael Tomasson’s team is using nanoparticles to deliver the cMyc-inhibitor prodrugs into the MM cells to maximize treatment. They plan to genetically modify the next generation of MM antagonists. In another CMMN project, they will use a combination of nanotherapy and light therapy to eradicate MM cells. 

These new nanotechnologies will allow doctors to be more precise in their method of eradicating cells infected by cancer. Using nanotherapy to deliver cancer treatments to infected cells causes less of the medication to get lost in the bloodstream. Initial research done by the Stevens Institute of Technology and Hackensack Meridian Health shows that test subjects who undergo nonotherapy are less likely to suffer toxicity than traditional cancer treatments.  When this therapy is approved for use on humans by the FDA it will allow doctors to save millions of lives and has numerous applications for the future of medicine.