lasers and cancer... new tech?

lasers and cancer... new tech?

stumbled on this site
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/04/02/2533168.htm
they make itty bitty gold spheres that somehow attach to cancer, then you shine a low power ir laser on it and it heats up and bakes the cancer... genious!

Re:  lasers and cancer... new tech?

Lasers,
Cause, and at the same time solution of all diseases in this world.



Seriously, if this can be developed, i think it would be a big step for the medicine.
Removing cancer cells without damaging the others is what medics want.

Re:  lasers and cancer... new tech?

I was gonna ask how you would manage to get this deep inside someones body, but then I thought, HEY ! fiber optics

Lasers, is there anything they can't do ?

-Adam

Re:  lasers and cancer... new tech?

That's pretty cool.  The biggest challenge is just getting those gold particle stuck to the right cells (the cancer ones) but not the wrong cells.  Unfortunately you will ALWAYS target cells you don't want, so the goal is to really minimize that amount.  It is typically done by attaching antibodies which are specific for surface antigens that are (ideally) uniquely expressed by the cancer cells, so they attach to only the cancer cells.  But, the antibodies are not absolutely specific and will, at least, weakly bind to other antigens that are not specific to the cancer cells, meaning some other cells may get targeted.

Re:  lasers and cancer... new tech?

Diachi said:

I was gonna ask how you would manage to get this deep inside someones body, but then I thought, HEY ! fiber optics  

Lasers, is there anything they can't do ?  

-Adam

Click to expand...

Now they have to cure AIDS

Re:  lasers and cancer... new tech?

I did a project on this a couple of months ago, they put some kind of antibody, as rkcstr said, on the gold particals as a carrier and SOME HOW, i never figured this part out, use a laser that penetrates skin and excites the gold thus killing the cancer, during trails on animals, dont hurt me PETA they were able to kill tumors without much to none damage to other cells. It doesnt take much energy to excite the gold enough to kill the cancer cells either.

Re:  lasers and cancer... new tech?

hmm... pretty sure gold reflects IR.

Re:  lasers and cancer... new tech?

someone get some gold and an ir laser!
if they dare