New war on cancer
This week marks the beginning of a new kind of war on cancer, as The National Cancer Institute launches a five-year, $144m nitiative to develop and apply nanotechnology to diagnosis, treat and ultimately prevent cancer.
This week marks the beginning of a new kind of war on cancer, as The National Cancer Institute launches a five-year, $144m nitiative to develop and apply nanotechnology to diagnosis, treat and ultimately prevent cancer.
This is definitely not the same old tired war on cancer, the NCI initiative forms a comprehensive, integrated aggressive alliance that will include researchers, clinicians and companies at the forefront of nanotechnology.
With an annual expenditure of $1bn worldwide, nanotechnology is already a large research focus amongst many researchers with many promising technologies for both imaging and treating tumours earlier and better than current treatments. The NCI Alliance hopes to tap into nanotechnology's diverse and promising capabilities toward fighting cancer.
In an NCI roundtable discussion outlining the possibilities of this type of alliance, Dr Sam Wickline, professor of medicine, physics and biomedical engineering at Washington University and founder of Kereos, Inc., spoke on how nanotechnology developed in his lab and licensed to Kereos allows for detection and targeted treatment of tumours as small as 1mm. With a clinical timeline fast coming to fruition, Kereos promises to be a leader in this alliance with their nanoparticles that are capable of targeting, imaging and treating tumours.
More information
More information on the alliance and a video cast of the roundtable can be found on NCI's website: http://nano.cancer.gov/