Bond, Jake Bond: A Science and Technology BlogNew Cancer Research- Glowing Tumors
February 9th 2012 00:09
Link: itechmedicaltoday.com
3-D Scan of Mouse Tumor
Conventional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy are injected into the blood stream and circulate throughout the body and are not targeted toward the cancerous tumors in any way. The main goal of chemotherapy is to kill the cancer quicker than you kill the patient. Targeted drugs to eliminate the tumors right where they are, instead of killing every cell in the body, are something that has been thought of well before, but we have not had the technology to target these tumors until the last couple of years. For centuries the only way to truly know how big the tumor was is to cut it out of the patient. That is one of the reasons why surgeons cut twice as much of the area around the tumor when removing it. In this new publication, genetically tweaked bacteria, made to glow, are injected into the blood stream of mice and then the mice are scanned in three dimensions and the glowing bacteria show exactly where the bacteria are inside the tumor. The bacteria used end up in the tumor because they only grow in anaerobic, or non-oxygenated, area in the body, such as the center of a tumor. Because of this new technology, doctors will be able to see exactly where they need to cut to completely remove the tumor. However, this is not the answer for the end of cancer, although it is a step forward. There are these types of cells called CSC's or Cancer Stem Cells and I will tell you about them, what they are and why they are important, in my next post.
Public Library of Science (2012, January 25).Engineered bacteria effectively target tumors, enabling tumor imaging potential in mice. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 6, 2012, from Really Long Link
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