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The Promising Future of Nanomedicine and Nanoparticles
By: Chieh-Ju Lu, D.Phil Medical review by Joshua Mansour, M.D.
Nanomedicine and nanoparticles have the potential to revolutionize cancer therapeutics because they should be able to deliver the drug with more precision.
Cancer, unfortunately, is widespread throughout the world. It affects millions of lives, in many different ways, on a daily basis. Before we dive into the topic of nanomedicine and nanoparticles, lets first look at the current state of cancer treatment.
Most therapeutic options for cancer are detrimental to the body They don’t just kill cancer cells, they can also damage healthy tissues causing serious side effects.
Cancer chemotherapy drugs suffer from poor biodistribution and, therefore, require high doses. [1] Resistance can also develop to one or more of the drugs being used on a regular basis. This means that oncologists must continually develop new drug “cocktails” to keep treating their patients.
Some of the drugs used, particularly in later rounds of chemotherapy, may also be relatively ineffective.
So far, the benefits of chemotherapy have outweighed the risks but with the dawn of the age of nanomedicine and nanoparticles, the situation may soon change.
