- Tiny golden "nanoshells" offer a new way to
kill inoperable tumours without harming surrounding tissue, according to
a study published today.
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- The shells, which consist of glass coated with gold,
are called nanoshells because they are a few billionths of a metre (a nanometre)
across, and mark another example of the burgeoning field of nanotechnology.
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- A Texan team, led by Dr Jennifer West at Rice University,
claims that the shells could be used to treat tumours which have been hard
to target until now.
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- Most solid tumours are removed by surgery but there are
some that are impossible to remove because they are so small, mingled with
surrounding tissue or located within a vital organ or tissue.
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- There are ways to deal with inoperable tumours but they
often damage healthy tissue too. Now Dr West's team has found a way to
kill these cells by combining two harmless treatments - nanoshells and
infrared (heat) laser light which passes harmlessly through normal tissue.
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- In today's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
Dr West says her team designed the nanoshells to absorb this particular
frequency of near-infrared light. The nanoshells warmed rapidly so that
they could be used selectively to "cook" and kill tumours.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/04
/wnan04.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/11/04/ixworld.html
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