Nanoscience may help cancer researchers

BETHESDA, Md., May 3 (UPI) -- Scientists say a U.S. government project is making progress in finding ways to use nanotechnology to improve diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer.

Piotr Grodzinski and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute's Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer say the $145 million project is producing innovations that will radically improve care for the disease.

Grodzinski says the alliance builds on more than 50 years of advances in cancer care that, although substantial, still leave cancer as the No. 1 cause of death worldwide.

The researchers, in an update of the status of the program, describe a range of advances, including some showing significant promise in clinical trials that would have a big impact on cancer. They promise earlier disease diagnosis, highly targeted treatments that kill cancer cells but leave normal cells alone, fewer side effects and improved survival.

The report appears in the American Chemical Society journal Nano.