New Atlas

Medical Audio available

New chemo drug keeps platinum nanoparticles on target for liver cancer

Michael Irving February 15, 2019

Chemotherapy drugs are effective at killing cancer cells – but they’re also pretty good at killing healthy cells. Making these drugs more selective for tumors is a key area of research, and now a team at ETH Zurich has found a way to keep a common treatment – platinum nanoparticles – on target.

Researchers have found a way to make platinum nanoparticles more effective against liver cancer, without harming ...

Biology Audio available

New Oxford-developed tool reads the life histories of cancer cells

Michael Irving February 12, 2019

Tumors are made up of many different types of cancer cells, and we can’t always clear them all out. Now Oxford researchers have developed a way to track the genetic “life histories” of thousands of individual cancer cells at once, which may lead to more effective and personalized cancer treatments.

Oxford researchers have developed a new technique that can track the "life histories" of cancer cells

Medical Audio available

Novel nano-gel promises to help kill leftover cancer cells after surgery

Rich Haridy December 10, 2018

The first step in many cancer treatments is to surgically remove the tumor, however this often isn’t enough. As long as a few cancer cells remain the tumors often grow back, but a new innovative spray gel, administered onto a cancerous site during surgery, may help prevent the tumors recurring.

The gel helps the immune system target and kill any cancer cells that remain after tumor-removal ...

Science

Biosensors developed to detect whether cancer is likely to spread

Rich Haridy December 5, 2018

A new study is reporting the development of novel biosensors that can detect the metastatic potential of individual cancer cells. The research is hoped to produce a system that can accurately let doctors know how likely a cancer is to spread, helping inform what treatment to administer.

Scientists are developing a biosensor to detect and measure whether a cancer cell is likely to ...

Medical Audio available

Two experimental cancer drugs team up after unexpected discovery

Michael Irving December 4, 2018

Researchers at MIT have combined two experimental cancer drugs, protein kinase inhibitors and ribonuclease drugs, and found that they worked better together than alone. The discovery could help reduce side effects of cancer treatments and make them more effective.

MIT researchers have combined two experimental cancer drugs into one treatment that's more effective than either ...

Medical

Golden hitchhikers avoid cancer's defences by riding on white blood cells

Michael Irving May 15, 2017

Cancer treatments could benefit from being more like a sniper and less like a shotgun blast. A new technique is taking that approach, allowing doctors to attach drugs to white blood cells and sneak them past the tumor’s defenses for a targeted attack that doesn’t affect healthy tissue.

Researchers have found a way to let golden nanoparticles hitchhike on white blood cells, to get ...

Medical

Sifting cancer cells into a "muffin pan" for better treatment options

Lisa-Ann Lee December 15, 2016

Prescribing treatments for lung cancer patients often involves invasive procedures like biopsies. However a new noninvasive blood test could change all this. Better yet, it costs less than $30.

A MagSifter chip used to extract CTCs from blood samples

Medical

MRI-based cancer detection technique could replace biopsies

Darren Quick March 30, 2015

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a technique that uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to noninvasively detect cancerous cells, offering the potential of supplementing biopsies or maybe one day replacing them altogether.

A new technique allows cancerous cells to be detected using MRI without the use of dyes ...

Medical

Glowing compound could lead to more effective cancer surgery

Nick Lavars January 8, 2015

Scientists have developed a method that could make for better precision in killing of cancer cells. The technique uses a unique compound with the ability to illuminate cancer cells when exposed to near-infrared light, potentially acting as markers for surgeons taking on the task of tumor removal.

Scientists have developed a a new method that sees cancer cells glow, potentially allowing for more ...

3D Printing

3D-printed tumor replicas to better measure doses of cancer-fighting drugs

Nick Lavars December 18, 2014

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.

3D printing models of tumors and their surrounding organs could help specialists to deliver cancer-fighting drugs ...