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Posts Tagged ‘Cancer Treatments’

Cancer is one of the deadliest and least understood diseases that afflicts humans and other animals. It is one of the most common causes of death among Americans and scientists have spent many years and plenty of money on creating a cure for cancer. While cancer is yet to be considered “curable”, many new advancements have been made which can slow cancer growths and prolong the lives of many people. This article will introduce a few of the most common methods of treating different types of cancer that can range from breast and prostate cancer to skin cancer.

Surgery

The first option for most patients diagnosed with cancer is to receive an initial surgery. The purpose of operating on the patient is to remove as much of the cancerous cells as possible. Cancer is usually found in a tumor, which is a large group of unhealthy cells. By opening up the patient and extracting these tumors, physicians can remove more than 95% of the cancerous cells. The downside of surgery is that many of the cells are tiny and have spread to other parts of the body. This means that it would be almost impossible for the surgeon to remove all of the cancerous cells.

Another important reason for operating on the patient is to implant a piece of radioactive material near the location of the tumor. This radioactive material is able to annihilate local cancerous cells by emitting high energy particles that destroy cancerous DNA.

Chemotherapy

The process of treating disease by using chemicals to kill small cancerous cells is called chemotherapy. Chemotherapy acts by destroying cancerous cells that are trying to quickly reproduce. Doctors must take special precautions when performing chemotherapy because the chemicals may also destroy healthy cells that also reproduce quickly such as hair follicles and bone marrow.

Radiation Therapy

Using ionized radiation to destroy cancer cells is known as radiotherapy, or radiation therapy. Radiation therapy is effective because it damages the DNA of cells by shooting a beam of photons, electrons, protons, ions, or neutrons directly at the cancerous cells. Radiation has been proven to be highly effective and is becoming a more and more common way to treat cancer patients.

Cancer is a deadly disease that affects millions of people worldwide. The treatments that attempt to cure it are chemotherapy and radiation treatments, along with surgery, when it can be performed. Not all cancer tumors can be removed with surgery. The new technology that is highly appreciated for cancer treatment uses gold nanoparticles. It has been discovered in the last years that gold nanoparticles are of great use in the process of detecting and destroying the cancer cells. This technology is less invasive to the human body, as it does not affect the healthy cells. On the other hand, chemotherapy and radiation cause hair loss, nausea, exhaustion and lots of other side effects.

There are many techniques for detecting cancer, but there is always a need to find new and less invasive ones. A new alternative is to use nanotechnology. Cancer cells have the EGFR (Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor) protein at their surface. This makes them distinct from the normal healthy cells that usually do not have it (or have it, but in much smaller quantity than the cells). Anti-EGFR antibodies are attached to the gold nanoparticles in the lab. An anti-EGFR antibody will attach itself to EGFR protein. That means that the gold nanoparticles carrying the anti-EGFR on their surface will get attached to the surfaces of cancer cells. When the gold particles are attached to the cells, they will be illuminated with infrared laser light, and the exact location of the cells will be revealed. The reason for this is that gold particles absorb and scatter light much more than it would be expected. That is why gold particles are great optical contrast agents used in molecular imaging procedures. The gold particles also have the ability to transform the radiation absorbed into heat, making it possible to target the cancer cells.

Gold particles can carry the treatment straight to the cells. It is possible to load the gold nanoparticles with the anticancer drugs and these articles will target the tumor directly. It has been discovered that there is a possibility that the gold particles, after they carry the treatment to the cancer zone, they will release the drugs over a specified period of time, so that the cancer cells are targeted with drugs constantly.

In conclusion, using nanotechnology, scientists are now able to destroy the cells, without damaging the healthy tissues around them. This is an extra reason to value gold and to invest in it. People can buy gold bullion as a means of investment, and they will not be disappointed. The price of gold will always stay up.