Magnetic nanoparticles engineered to capture cancer cells
A paper published in the January issue of the journal Nanomedicine could provide the foundation for a new ovarian cancer treatment option — one that would use an outside-the-body filtration device to remove a large portion of the free-floating cancer cells that often create secondary tumors.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have formed a startup company and are working with a medical device firm to design a prototype treatment system that would use magnetic nanoparticles engineered to capture cancer cells. Added to fluids removed from a patient’s abdomen, the magnetic nanoparticles would latch onto the free-floating cancer cells, allowing both the nanoparticles and cancer cells to be removed by magnetic filters before the fluids are returned to the patient’s body.