UK scientists in cancer 'grenade' breakthrough

October 31, 2015 17:50

Scientists in Britain have designed microscopic "grenades" that can explode their cancer-killing load into tumours. The Manchester-based team will present its findings at the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Liverpool next week.

The team plan to use liposomes, tiny bubbles of fat which carry materials round the body, to release toxic drugs when their temperature is raised. These so-called "grenades" are intended to avoid side- effects by ensuring the drugs target only the tumour.

"This is still early work but these liposomes could be an effective way of targeting treatment towards cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed," said Professor Charles Swanton, the chairman of the conference. Cancer experts believe such technology, which has been effective in animal experiments, was the "holy grail of nanomedicine". They are trying to harness the transporting abilities of these fatty spheres by getting them to carry toxic drugs to tumours.

"The difficulty is, how do you release them when they reach their target," Professor Kostas Kostarelos, from the University of Manchester, told BBC.

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