Lasers and Nanoshells to Attack Cancer
If dendrimers are the sharp end of nanoscale engineering in cancer research, you'll find there's plenty still going on further back up the nanotechnology wedge. From the MIT Technology Review: "One of these new approaches places gold-coated nanoparticles, called nanoshells, inside tumors and then heats them with infrared light until the cancer cells die. ... These spheres are small enough (about 100 nanometers in diameter) to slip through gaps in blood vessels that feed tumors. So as they circulate in the bloodstream, they gradually accumulate at tumor sites. ... We shine light through the skin, and in just a few minutes, the tumor is heated up. In the studies that were initially reported - and this has been repeated now more than 20 times in at least three different animal models - we have seen essentially 100 percent tumor remission." Cancer is one of the big bugbears of aging - the sooner scientists become very good at killing it, the better.
Link: http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=17956