Cancer

Tiny 3D-printed robotic animals could one day delivering drugs directly to cancers, to help reduce side effects. These microrobots are steered by magnets, and only release their drug payload when they encounter the acidic environment around a tumor.

Heatherwick Studio's most recent project is named Maggie's Leeds. Conceived as oversized planters, it features thousands of plants and the use of timber to provide people living with cancer, and their families, a pleasant environment to get support.

"World’s smallest computer” is a contentious title, not just because scientists are racing to shrink devices, but because the very definition of a computer could be up for debate. The latest claim to the title is a tiny device that communicates through light and makes a grain of rice look gigantic.

Individuals with cancer experience many anxiety-filled moments over their course of treatment. In order to alleviate some of this stress, one Australian hospital is using virtual reality to provide a therapeutic degree of relaxation and escapism to its chemotherapy patients.

Heatherwick Studio, it of London's controversial Garden Bridge, has unveiled the design for a new cancer support center in Leeds, UK. Maggie's Yorkshire looks not unlike a series of plant pots filled with greenery. It aims to provide a calm and relaxed home for the support provided at the center.

Administering dosages of drugs to fight cancerous tumors can be a difficult balancing act. But a new technique may afford doctors an unprecedented level of accuracy, using 3D printed replicas of a patient’s organs and tumors to better determine the amount of radiation delivered.

Slowly but surely, 3D printing is making its way through the human anatomy, replacing everything from hips to jaws to cancerous vertebrae. The latest body part to be ticked off the list is the the heel, an achievement which has put a 71-year-old cancer patient back on his feet.

While there seems to be new applications popping up everyday, no industry is poised to benefit from this 3D printing in quite the way medicine is. The latest groundbreaking treatment involves an Indian cancer patient who has had his upper jaw replaced with the help of 3D printing.

A great strength of 3D-printing in the field of medicine is the ability to provide low-cost implants molded to a patient's anatomy. Researchers have taken this technology one step further, loading these implants with medical compounds as a means of better targeted drug delivery.