Nanotechnology may replicate "Lance Armstrong effect"

Filed in archive Medical on August 13, 2006

Today I'm in Indianapolis for the Race to Replace with Lance Armstrong. The event raised money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation to fight cancer and support survivors. And did you know that a recent study shows that nanotechnology may help treat the same kind of testicular cancer that afflicted Lance.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found that heat may destroy cancer cells, and suggest it may have been body heat from cycling that helped Lance kick cancer. Researcher Dr. Robert Getzenberg called this phenomena the "Lance Armstrong effect".

But they're not recommending the Tour de France as a cure for cancer. Instead they're suggesting that nanotechnology may help pinpoint the application of heat to kill cancer cells while leaving normal ones unscathed.

According to a Johns Hopkins University press release, to direct heat only to cancer cells, the researchers are investigating the use of nanoparticles that have an affinity for surface proteins carried by cancer cells. Once the nanoparticle finds the correct "address" of the cancer cell, it slips through the cell's surface and heats the cell from the inside out after exposure to a magnetic field.

The Johns Hopkins scientists believe that, if injected through the bloodstream, magnetic nanoparticles may be able to reach tumors throughout most of the body. And as long as the nanoparticles penetrate most of the cells in the tumor, the temperature increase will spread to the entire mass. (Photo Larry Hickmott)