New nanoclusters cook and kill cancer cells

Once injected into the tumour, the nanoparticles are exposed to an alternating magnetic field (AMF) that causes them to reach temperatures in excess of 100^oF to kill the cancer cells.

This technique, however, doesn’t work for certain types of cancer that are hard to reach and are better treated with a 'systemic' delivery method such as intravenous injection, or injection into the abdominal cavity.

Now, researchers at Oregon State University have focussed on ovarian cancer to develop nanoparticles that, when administered systemically in clinically appropriate doses, accumulate in the tumour well enough to allow the AMF to heat and kill cancer cells.

Olena Taratula and Oleh Taratula of the OSU College of Pharmacy are said to have tackled the problem by developing nanoclusters, multiatom collections of nanoparticles, with enhanced heating efficiency. The nanoclusters are hexagon-shaped iron oxide nanoparticles doped with cobalt and manganese and loaded into biodegradable nanocarriers. Their findings have been published in ACS Nano.