Fighting Cancer with Nanoparticles

Researchers recently announced a breakthrough in nanoparticle technology that could prove to be an effective weapon against cancer. While most of the next-generation therapies currently being investigated focus on harnessing the body’s immune system, the new approach targets the cells that allow cancer to spread.

Within the body, immune cells build structures known as neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). These structures normally function to fight bacteria, but are sometimes exploited by cancer cells to metastasize to other parts of the body. In the technique being investigated, nanoparticles are coated with an enzyme that kills the NETs before the cancer cells can attach to them. In a preliminary study on breast cancer in mice, three of nine mice that received the nanoparticles showed no signs of cancer progression, while the cancers in the entire control group continued to worsen.

Although the results are promising, important questions remain with regard to how effective such a technique would be in humans. Since NETs are designed to fight bacteria, limiting their ability to fight infection could prove detrimental to cancer patients whose immune systems are already compromised. Additional research will also be needed to determine whether the approach would be effective on other types of cancers.