London - Tiny golden bullets could help patients win the fight against brain cancer.
British experts have used pieces of gold so small that four million would fit on the end of a strand of hair to kill cancer cells.
The particles were used to carry a drug into diseased cells and destroy them. The treatment is designed to counter glioblastomas – the most common and most dangerous brain tumours.
Around 2 500 Britons are diagnosed with these fast growing and difficult to treat tumours every year. While chemotherapy drugs help initially, the effect is often temporary. The research suggests gold can be used to make the drugs much more effective.
Professor Sir Mark Welland, of St John’s College at the University of Cambridge, took the gold specks and attached the cancer drug cisplatin to them. Once they had wormed their way into tumour cells, he shone X-rays on them.
This led to the gold releasing electrons that damaged the cancer cells – making it easier for the drug to kill the cells, the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Nanoscale reports.
Sir Mark said it was too early to describe the treatment as a cure. The need to be sure it is safe means it is at least seven years away from widespread use. - Daily Mail