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Nov 13, 2008 10:00 pm US/Central
UNT Researches Golden Opportunity For Cancer Cure
Nanotech Research Brings Hope Cancer Patients Could Someday See End To Chemo Treatments
DENTON (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
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University of North Texas
Now 42, Sarah Moreno has battled cancer for nearly 10 years.
"You never think that a six-letter word can affect you the way cancer does," the patient quips.
In 1999, Moreno was diagnosed with a form of Hodgkin's lymphoma and has endured chemotherapy treatments.
"I've had several different kinds of chemos through the years and it feels like somebody just plugged me up and flipped a switch and just sucked out my energy."
Many know chemotherapy stops cancerous cells from dividing by killing them. The problem is most chemo drugs can't tell the difference between healthy cells and cancer cells, so both are attacked.
"It effects your white blood count. It effects your red blood count. It effects your platelets. It effects everything," Moreno says.
Denton-based researchers, however, could bring new hope to Moreno and thousands of other cancer patients.
Dr. Mohammad Omary, a chemistry professor at the University of North Texas, works with a team of 14 others who are using nanotechnology and studying how to use gold nano-particles to kill cancer cells from inside a tumor.
A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. A good way to understand how small that really is, consider the size of a marble versus the size of planet Earth.
"In that magical scale," Omary explains, "a lot of the properties of the material can be enhanced."
Omary's theory involves attaching the gold nanoparticles directly to the cancer cells then beaming a certain light onto those particles in the tumor.
"We have the chemical structure of the medium that contains the gold nanoparticles and that has to be specific only to attach to cancer cells," he explains.
"The absorption of the near infared light by these gold nanoparticles can generate sufficient heat to kill cancer cells."
Researchers say it's like burning the tumor from the inside out.
However, they have a big obstacle to overcome.
What Omary and his colleagues continue to work to do is figure out how to get the gold nanoparticles to only attach to cancerous balls.
"Researchers have already identified many of these proteins that are basically a signature of certain kinds of cancers. By this process that we are trying, we can do more targeted diagnostic and more targeted delivery even so that we can just localize the treatment," said Arup Neogi, a physics professor with the UNT Nanotechnology Research Group.
For Moreno, the idea of getting a treatment that wouldn't damage her entire body is uplifting.
"That would be an awesome thing."
She offers the "never give up" mantra to the researchers.
"Just keep plugging away because there are thousands -- possibly millions -- of people who have to deal with it in one form or another."
UNT is not alone in this research. UT Arlington and the UT Southwestern in Dallas also have similar programs.
"It's an exciting thing that we are contributing into something which probably can be a breakthrough for the future," Neogi says.
Researchers, however, stress that seeing this type of technology in mainstream cancer treatments is still years away.
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