Metastasized cancer cells caught and killed by nanoparticles

Ars Technica : Metastasis is the spread of cancer cells from the initial tumor to other parts of the body. It accounts for 9 out of 10 deaths from cancer. Treatment of metastasized cancer is difficult because it is nearly impossible to find and kill all of the cancer cells once they have spread. Now, Michael King of Cornell University and his colleagues have developed nanoparticles that can do just that. The nanoparticles include a protein called TRAIL that reactivates apoptosis , the natural process of cell death, which has been deactivated in cancer cells. The nanoparticles are bound to white blood cells, which increases the time that the particles are in the body and brings them to all of the possible areas where the cancer cells can reach. The nanoparticles were tested by injecting them into the blood of mice that had previously been injected with cancer cells. The rate of the development of tumors in the mice treated with the nanoparticles was significantly lower than in untreated mice. However, the method is still very new and has yet to be tested in mice that already have a primary tumor. It is also unclear whether the nanoparticles will be useful in identifying or treating the tumors that form after the initial tumor has metastasized.