User:Paranoid/Future technologies
Several companies are working on nanotechnology-based treatment for cancer. The advantage of such treatments is the ability to target the treatment precisely at the tumour, with little or no side effects, associated with traditional "carpet-bombing" treatments. Often, nanotechnology treatments allow to locate the tumours in early stages of cancer, before they spread and cause significant health damage.
BrachySil capsules by pSiVida Ltd., an Australian biomaterials company, is a medical nanotechnology device for targeted drug delivery. It consist of "BioSilicon", a porous bio-degradable material filled with the active component. The pores are about 10 atoms or 1 nanometer in size and can be loaded with drugs, vaccines, proteins, DNA fragments or radionuclides. The capsules control the release rate of the active component by using radioactive isotope phosphorus-32. [1]
As of 2004 the device undergoes clinical trials in Singapore. The company expects it to be released on the market by 2006. The product will be used to treat liver, brain, pancrea and other cancers. Future smart devices based on BioSilicon are possible, because it can be relatively easily integrated with silicon based electronics.
Another company, Kereos, based in Saint Louis, Missouri, is developing another technology to combat cancer. Nanoparticles developed by the company, 250nm in diameter, can target specific molecules (biomarkers) and release precise amounts of drug or MRI-marker to locations where the biomarker is present. Currently the particles are designed to target angiogenesis, the process of a tumour recruiting blood vessels, using four specific proteins as biomarkers. The human trials for the MRI-marker delivering diagnostic tool are expected to begin in 2005 with trials for paclitaxel delivering therapeutic tool following in 2006. [2]