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Permalink Reply by DWoroner on July 21, 2008 at 10:09pm

This is something I came up with about 5 years ago. Nobody was interested, but I bet some people may be interested now. Funny how that goes.....
Anyways, this is my first post in here and I very rarely join discussions, but I couldnt help but post this.
My reasoning? I watched my father die after a year of colon cancer, they cut thirteen *(13) feet of his intestines out...... (and he made 38 bombing missions in WWII) what the heck ehh? then, waste away, hallucinate until he no longer knew me. So, if there is something I could do, I don't care about money.......
Best, Dave

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Permalink Reply by TINC on July 21, 2008 at 10:14pm

Thanks for your comment! Hope we can start a discussion...

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Permalink Reply by Tiratha Raj Singh on July 24, 2008 at 9:19am

Yes I agree Olga.
Cancer is a global problem and day by day its varieties are being disclosed. its versatile and can be found now in any human body part or organ. i think systems biology approach can help in the identification of exact markers for the treatment or cure of cancer. kinase family of enzymes play a crucial role in cancer. I am a bioinformatician and worked very little on kinase. i also want to learn more about the whole process/scenario.

best wishes

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Permalink Reply by David Lyndel on July 24, 2008 at 12:01pm

In the US there is campaign to use nanoscience for the diagnostics, imaging, treatment and other therapeutics in the area of cancer research. However the gov't funding has been slow to emerge. I see Michael McDonald has addressed the radiofrequency used to heat up nanovectors injected into tumors. I didn't read all of his post but it seems the machine being studies at Anderson is the Lanzius machine or some such. It is named after its inventor. A non-academic. Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to see the path to a novel approach. He is trying to by-pass some of the usual methods for US approval by fast-tracking the technology. Its also likely that bioinformatics and systems biology is going to play a role in cancer prevention and early detection. Biomarkers for various forms of cancer are needed as well as genetic predisposition indicators to develop those diseases. It does appear headway is being made in understanding the cell and chemical biology. Plus some very recent breakthroughs in imaging of intact living cells will contribute immensely. A good resource for researchers in at nano.nic.gov/teaming. Then the Max Planck Institute is doing some great things, especially in organelles, proteomics and signal transduction. So is Japan and the EU as well as many other government, commerical and academic centers. To me this demonstrates that everyone realizes how crucial this issue is. I think an exciting thing is the recent re-emergence of an old (1980s) drug that was withdrawn though it was successful. The drug caused neuro-cognitive and memory problems. Now by adding a large polymer to the drug in this new nanoformulation it is not able to cross the bloodbrain barrier. The Eighties drug was known as TNP-470 and it increased longevity and induced regression in cancer patients. The new drug "cooked up" by Children's Boston Hospital researchers is called Lodamin. One Harvard professor of vascular biology says its the most potent angiogenesis inhibitor ever seen. My spouse has cancer "again" so you can see I now have a new motivation in this fight.
have a great one.
david

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Permalink Reply by Michael McDonald aka CaptNano on July 24, 2008 at 5:40pm

Greetings David,
Allow me to present to you something that may be useful for your wife. I will make no claims that this is a cure for cancer, however it has some promising results. I recently got involved at the request of the CEO of a major BioTech firm that is going to release a product and service Aug 1st. It is not open to the public for users yet, but you can get in as an affiliate.
What this is all about is your DNA. We all know that our individual make up is different and our nutritional needs are as diversified as well. After 14 years of researching & development GeneLink has provided a way to precisely match what your individual needs are, by taking your DNA sample and doing an assessment. To get more information about this amazing breakthrough, take a look at my GeneWize site.
As I mentioned it is available here is the US only for the time being, but will expand Globally later. Hope this is helpful.

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Permalink Reply by Samir on August 5, 2008 at 10:00pm

Cancer is definitely a serious issue that is somehow being kept in the silence. It's scary... That might be one the the reasons. However, I am sure that a cure will be found in the very near future. Let's hope so...

I get emails from people who have cancer asking about treatment and it's hard for me to tell them there there's nothing that can help them yet.

Oh and, since this is my first post, I'd like to say hello to everyone! :-)

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Permalink Reply by JohnT on December 26, 2008 at 6:58pm

A posting I made on my site www.nanobroadcast.com/?p=200 (
Cancer Diagnostics Revolutionized by Nanotechnology)

Regards
JohnT

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Permalink Reply by TINC on December 26, 2008 at 7:01pm

thanks for the info

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Permalink Reply by Fujun Liu on December 30, 2008 at 8:14am

Hi Olga, I knew that magnetofluid can work well for the heat therapy of cancer.The ultimate temerature that cancer cells could sustain was lower than that for normal cells. By adjusting the intensity of applied magnetic field, the temperature of magnetofluid can be accuratly set below the ultimate temerature of normal cells, while above that of cancer cells. So cancer cells will be killed, normal cells surviving. I can only share these informations with you, for my subject is material science, not biology. I an good at synthesizing paramagnetic materials, so I knew a little about their applications on medical field.

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Permalink Reply by Gajanan Ghodake on December 30, 2008 at 11:00am

Cancer should be killed by site directed attack

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Permalink Reply by Julian on December 30, 2008 at 11:55am

Nanotechnology can be used to treat cancer cells.I hope this video can help to understand the Futuristic approach of Nanotechnology

http://bioisolutions.blogspot.com/2008/12/nanotechnology-in-cancer....

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Permalink Reply by Nivashini on December 30, 2008 at 12:23pm

This is an article from www.nanoparticle.org which I found interesting



ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2008) — Nanoparticles filled with a drug that targets two genes that trigger melanoma could offer a potential cure for this deadly disease, according to cancer researchers. The treatment, administered through an ultrasound device, demonstrates a safer and more effective way of targeting cancer-causing genes in cancer cells without harming normal tissue.

"It is a very selective and targeted approach," said Gavin Robertson, associate professor of pharmacology, pathology and dermatology, Penn State College of Medicine. "And unlike most other cancer drugs that inadvertently affect a bunch of proteins, we are able to knock out single genes."

The Penn State researchers speculated that "silencing RNA" (siRNA) -- strands of RNA molecules that knock out specific genes -- could turn off the two cancer-causing genes and potentially treat the deadly disease more effectively.

"siRNA checks the expression of the two genes, which then lowers the abnormal levels of the cancer causing proteins in cells," explained Robertson, who is lead author of the paper appearing in the Sept. 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research.

In recent years, researchers have zeroed in on two key genes -- B-Raf and Akt3 -- that cause melanoma. B-Raf, the most frequently mutated gene in melanoma, produces the mutant protein, B-Raf, which helps mole cells survive and grow but does not form melanomas on its own.

Robertson and colleagues previously found that a protein called Akt3 regulates the activity of the mutated B-Raf, which aids the development of melanoma.

The drug in this study specifically targets Akt3 and the mutant B-Raf and does therefore not affect normal cells, added Robertson, who is also director of the Foreman Foundation Melanoma Therapeutics Program at the Penn State College of Medicine Cancer Institute.

However, while knocking out specific genes may seem like a straightforward task, delivering the siRNA drug to cancerous cells is another story, because protective layers in the skin not only keep drugs out, but chemicals in the skin quickly degrade the siRNA.

To clear these two hurdles, Robertson and his team engineered hollow nano-sized particles -- nanoliposomes -- from globes of fatty acids into which they packed the siRNA. Next, the researchers used a portable ultrasound device to temporarily create microscopic holes in the surface of the skin, allowing the drug-filled particles to leak into tumor cells beneath.

"Think of it as tiny basketballs that each protect the siRNA inside from getting degraded by the skin," explained Robertson. "These basketballs fall through the holes created by the ultrasound and are taken up by the tumor cells, thereby delivering the siRNA drug into the tumor cells."

When the researchers exposed lab-generated skin -- made from human connective tissue -- containing early cancerous lesions to the treatment 10 days after the skin was created, the siRNA reduced the ability of cells containing the mutant B-Raf to multiply by nearly 60 to 70 percent, and more than halved the size of lesions after three weeks.

"This is essentially human skin with human melanoma cells, which provides an accurate picture of how the drug is acting," said Robertson.

Mice with melanoma that underwent the same treatment had their tumors shrink by nearly 30 percent when only the mutant B-Raf was targeted. There was no difference in the development of melanoma when the Akt3 gene alone was targeted, though existing tumors shrank by about 10 to 15 percent in two weeks.

However, when the researchers targeted both the Akt3 and the mutant B-Raf at the same time, they found that tumors in the mice shrank about 60 to 70 percent more than when either gene was targeted alone.

"If you knock down each of these two genes separately, you are able to reduce tumor development somewhat," Robertson said. "But knocking them down together leads to synergistic reduction of tumor development."

While human clinical trials could be years away, Robertson says the findings show the promise of personalized medicine, where patients could receive treatments designed to specifically target the errant genes or proteins for their disease.

"The problem with this cancer, like most cancers, is that if you target one protein, the cells quickly find a way around it," explained Robertson. "Most chemotherapies are ineffective because patients initially respond but then when the tumor reoccurs, the cancer does not respond at all."

In the future, Robertson believes physicians could identify three or four targets in a patient, which could be treated sequentially or in combination for a greater health benefit.

Other researchers on the paper include Melissa A. Tran, graduate student, Raghavendra Gowda, postdoctoral fellow, Arati Sharma, assistant professor, and Mark Kester, professor, all in the Department of Pharmacology; James Adair, professor of materials science and engineering; E. J. Park, graduate student, and Nadine Barrie Smith, associate professor of bioengineering, all at Penn State.

The American Cancer Society, The Foreman Foundation for Melanoma Research, and the Department of Defense Technologies for Metabolic Monitoring funded this work.

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• cancer.htm, 112 KB

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