New breast cancer treatment is 'gold'

Coated gold nanorods have the potential to act as anticancer agents, a new study has found.

In research conducted by Associate Professor of Chemistry Eugene Zubarev, graduate student Leonid Vigderman and former graduate student Pramit Manna developed a method to encourage single breast cancer cells to take up around two million gold nanorod particles.

This in turn would give scientists the opportunity to activate the particles and destroy breast cancer cells from the inside out.

However, a key challenge is that making the viable gold nanorods requires a new technique as those made in standard ways do not have the optimal structure.

"Nanorods scatter light, so you can see them when they are collectively together, which is good for imaging, and their photothermal property of turning light into heat offers potential for cancer treatment," said Mr Vigderman.

The potential treatment includes targeting cancer cells injected with nanorods with a low-beam laser, producing enough heat to "cook" the cells.

Posted by Fiona Griffiths