Chemotherapy ‘becomes a more effective THIRD’ with magnetic nanoparticles

Chemotherapy ‘becomes a more effective THIRD’ with magnetic nanoparticles

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The chemotherapy technique that uses magnetic nanoparticles to heat cancer cells to over 40 ° C while administering drugs is a more effective THIRD, the study shows

  • Cancer cells are vulnerable to heat and can be attacked with magnetic particles
  • They cling to tumor cells and a magnetic field causes them to warm up
  • This increases your susceptibility to chemo drugs carried by nanoparticles

By Joe Pinkstone for Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

Chemotherapy can be up to 34 percent more effective thanks to a new technique that combines treatment with magnetic particles that fry cancer cells.

Researchers at University College London found that the combination of drugs for heat treatment and chemo makes the process more effective.

Tiny magnetic nanoparticles bind to cancer cells in a tumor and also carry the chemotherapy drug.

When doctors apply a harmless magnetic field to the area outside the body, it activates the magnetic properties of the nanoparticles and causes them to heat up, by heating the trapped cancer cells.

Research shows that it damages the tumor and makes it more vulnerable to pre-existing drugs.

Chemotherapy is made up to 34 percent more effective thanks to a new technique that combines treatment with magnetic particles that boil cancer cells (stock photo)

Chemotherapy is made up to 34 percent more effective thanks to a new technique that combines treatment with magnetic particles that boil cancer cells (stock photo)

The research so far has only been tested in the laboratory, but the researchers say the first findings are significant.

Human breast cancer cells, glioblastoma cells (brain cancer) and mouse prostate cancer cells were all treated, in a test tube, with this new technique.

Doxorubicin – a commonly used chemo – has been applied to magnetic nanoparticles.

Tiny magnetic nanoparticles carry the chemotherapy drug and also bind to cancer cells in a tumor. When doctors apply a harmless magnetic field to the area outside the body, the nanoparticles begin to heat up, heating up the cancer cells

Tiny magnetic nanoparticles carry the chemotherapy drug and also bind to cancer cells in a tumor. When doctors apply a harmless magnetic field to the area outside the body, the nanoparticles begin to heat up, heating up the cancer cells

The results, which were peer reviewed and published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B, show promising results for the experimental method.

The heat and doxorubicin together killed 98% of brain cancer cells after 48 hours. The drug killed only 73% of the cells when applied without heat.

For breast cancer cells, 89 percent of the cancer was eliminated by the combination, and that drops to just 77 percent with the drug alone.

The senior author, Professor Nguyen TK Thanh, said: ‘Our study shows the enormous potential of combining chemotherapy with heat treatment provided by means of magnetic nanoparticles.

‘Although this combination of therapy is already approved for the treatment of fast-growing glioblastomas, our results suggest that it has the potential to be used more widely as a broad anticancer therapy.

“This therapy also has the potential to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy, ensuring that it is more targeted at cancer cells than at the healthy problem. This needs to be explored in other pre-clinical tests. ‘

WHY CHEMO MAY NOT WORK?

Cancer cells can figure out how to resist chemotherapy.

This can happen for several reasons.

Cells that are not killed can mutate and change in response, repair DNA damaged by the drug, or develop a mechanism that makes it useless.

Therefore, the success of the drugs often depends on the failure of the repair mechanisms of the cancer cells.

Cancer cells can produce hundreds of copies of a particular gene, known as gene amplification, triggering an overproduction of a protein that impedes the treatment’s effectiveness.

Cancer cells are sometimes able to expel the drug from themselves, using a molecule called p-glycoprotein.

Since chemotherapy is the first line of treatment, it is a major concern when it stops working.

Professor Workman, chief executive of the Cancer Research Institute, said: ‘Cancer’s ability to adapt, evolve and become resistant to drugs is the cause of the vast majority of deaths from the disease and the biggest challenge we face to overcome it ‘.

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