Tiny magnetic discs offer hope for high-tech cancer cure

December 1, 11:52 AMSF Health News ExaminerJefferson Adams

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Doctors may soon be killing cancer cells by using tiny magnetic discs
just a millionth of a meter across. according to a study published in
Nature Materials. tThe so-called "nanodiscs", around 60 billionths
of a meter thick, can be used to destabilize cancer cell membranes,
causing the cells to self-destruct. Photo: Argonne National Lab

Doctors may soon be killing cancer cells by using tiny magnetic discs just a millionth of a meter across, according to a study published in Nature Materials.

Laboratory results show the so-called "nanodiscs", around 60 billionths of a meter thick, can be used to destabilize cancer cell membranes, causing the cells to self-destruct.

Crafted from an iron-nickel alloy, the discs move slightly when subjected to a magnetic field.  The movement degrades and destroys the cancer cells, the report said.

One of the principal researchers, Elena Rozhlova of Argonne National Laboratory in the United States, said stimulating the discs to low-level magnetic energy for about ten minutes destroyed about 90 percent of cancer cells in tests.

In comments published with the report, Jon Dobson of Keele University in Britain said antibodies could be used to direct the discs towards tumor cells.

"This provides an elegant and rapid technique for targeting tumor destruction without the side effects associated with systemic treatments such as chemotherapy," Dobson wrote.