Melanoma-seeking Nanoparticle Enters Testing

From Fiercebiotech.com

Researchers are targeting melanoma with a nanoparticle that's been in development for more than 10 years. The nanoparticle is designed to not only hunt down cancer, but also to highlight its spread through the body. Successfully tested in animals, the nanoparticle will be tried in five melanoma patients this year.

Once melanoma spreads beyond the skin, it's difficult to find and treat. "There's never been a targeted therapy for melanoma," says Michelle Bradbury, a radiologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering who's leading the clinical trial. If the nanoparticle can track melanoma's spread, it could make a big difference in treating that cancer.

But Bradbury and her team are also hoping that the nanoparticle can serve as an optical imaging agent to help find cancer-containing lymph nodes. That would allow surgeons to remove all the cancer with as little cutting as possible.

This development uses nanoparticle technology to help find cancer cells. Much optimism in the cancer community surrounds using nanoparticles to treat cancer, perhaps one day even eliminating the whole-body poisoning approach of current chemotherapy regimens. MIT recently opened a $100 million cancer research center, funded by billionaire David Koch, with one of its goals being the development of nanoparticle delivery systems for cancer treatements.

Read more in the MIT Technology Review.