Can We Use Nanotechnology to Treat Cancer?

Could the next big change in cancer treatment actually be tiny? There are many reasons that cancer is such a difficult disease to treat. Scientists can either try to come up with new and better cancer medicines or they can find better ways for cancer patients to receive their medicines. This paper describes a possible new way to deliver cancer medicines using something called nanoparticles – tiny, tiny, sponge-like materials that have the cancer medicines inside. Scientists hope that nanoparticles will improve the delivery of the cancer medicine into tumors. By putting the medicine inside the nanoparticle, we can protect the healthy cells in the body from these strong medicines, and we might be able to use a lower dose of the medicine to treat the patient. This exciting technology is still being researched and improved, but could 1 day be used as an effective strategy to treat cancer patients.