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Focused Chemotherapy
ASEE Prism, Feb 2008 by Grose, Thomas
NANOTECHNOLOGY
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CANCER PATIENTS who have to undergo chemotherapy suffer horribly from harsh side effects, including hair loss and nausea. That's because chemotherapy drugs destroy healthy tissue as well as the cancer cells that create tumors. The wrenching effects of these drugs are why they have to be used in moderation, which limits their effectiveness.ini 996, when his wife had to undergo chemotherapy for breast cancer, Mark Davis was motivated to find a better way. He's a chemical engineer at the California Institute of Technology, and an expert at assembling nanoparticles. More than a decade later, Davis' research looks extremely promising. His solution bonds the molecules of strong chemo drug camptothecin with those of a starch-based polymer. The resulting molecules are able to pass through the more porous veins and capillaries of tumors, but at 40 nanometers-about one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair-are too big to pass through the blood vessels of healthy tissue.The drug, IT-101, has worked amazingly well in the first phase of chemical trials, effectively treating an apparently fatal case of pancreatic cancer, as well as large lung and kidney tumors. Davis needs to move on to the second phase of the trials, but news reports of his initial successes have led to his being inundated with calls for help. He's stopped answering his phone, he told Newsweek, "because I can't keep saying no to people." He finds that heartwrenching, but Davis also knows his invention must soon advance to the second phase-because the statistical evidence that results from it will prove if the nano-med he's sculpted truly is a lifesaver.-TG
Copyright AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION Feb 2008
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