A team of researchers consisting of father and son may offer a whole new technique for cancer treatment with the use of gold nanoparticles. The research team initially identified the ability of gold nanoparticles to attach themselves to cancer cells which could make it a valuable tool in cancer screening, the recent findings indicated that gold nanoparticles could go a step further and kill the cancer cells. "Since we can see them because they are so bright, we may be able to use it to detect the cancer and then when we see it, kill it.  This detection property will be limited to cancers that occur on the surface (like oral, colon, lung)", says Ivan El-Sayed MD, assistant professor of otolaryngology of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Centre who conducted the research with his father Mostafa El-Sayed, PhD, director of the Laser Dynamics Laboratory and chemistry professor of the Georgia Institute of technology.

 Can the use of gold nanoparticles offer a method of non-surgically eliminating cancer cells, completely even in the latter stages of cancer? "We do not yet know the limits of this technique. This work was done in cell cultures. However, from research done in our lab and elsewhere for other purposes- I believe that we have a good chance of delivering the nanoparticles to the cancer cells and heating them up", says El-Sayed and further explained that they will have to test it to see if they can get a complete elimination of cancer cells and plan to do this in the future, as even if it is not totally effective, he believes there is an excellent chance of extending the treatment options and if all goes 100% as planned, they hope to cure large cancers.

"However, other possible uses include treating cancers that have recurred after radiation and cannot receive anymore radiation (you can only give a limited dose of radiation, but it would seem we could give an unlimited treatment with our technique), Treatment of tumors that are hard to access surgically", he says, and also said that it could be used to treat tumors that are close to important structures such as eyes or brain, giving it many possibilities but would have to be sorted out.

Gold nanoparticles have the possibility of being available for treatment of many different types of cancer, which is one of the main areas of focus of the researchers. "This is a designer Molecule. We have demonstrated the therapeutic aspect of it (converting light to heat), and it is very biocompatible, so we can attach to a variety of molecules or agents for delivery to any tumor in the body.  Thus we are working on packaging the particles for delivery to various tumors", says El-Sayed and also stated that they are working on tailoring the particles to specific tumors at various depths in the body as well as further hoping to understand the science of the particles.

According to El-Sayed the time taken for this treatment to be available to cancer patients will depend on several variables. "Gold nanoparticles have already been used in the human body safely for 50 years as something called colloidal gold. It has been used for a radiotracer and for rheumatoid arthritis. Therefore, we have passed a major hurdle of assessing patient safety and I hope it will make passage of this to the human trials much quicker", he says and stated however that they have much work to do to demonstrate how effective it is in living tissues before they can justify its availability to humans, which may take a few years.

Source: University of California, San Francisco Medical Centre