Burning Tumors With Magnetism
Sunday, July 3, 2011 - 07:20
in Physics & Chemistry
Cancer cells, like normal cells, begin to perish as soon as the temperature hits 43°C. So, the obvious challenge is to find out how cancer cells can be heated up without affecting the normal, healthy cells. One idea to deal with it, is known as magnetic hyperthermia. This involves injecting magnetic nanoparticles into the targeted tumors (For another nanoparticle approach to cancer, click here). Subsequently, the patient is put into a magnetic field that reverses direction several thousands of times each second. This excites the nanoparticles, heating them. Since the magnetic particles are only found in the tumors, the healthy tissue is exempt from the damaging heat.read more