Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital are using a specific type of nanoparticle as a weapon in the fight against cancer.
Tiny weapons, big impact on the fight against cancer
Nanoparticles have been used in consumer products like tennis rackets and stain-repellent fabric for decades. But today, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital are using a specific type of nanoparticle as a weapon in the fight against cancer.
Frustrated by the inability to know for certain whether cancer has metastasized, or spread to surrounding lymph nodes, Dr. Mukesh Harisinghani, a radiologist, developed a new method for detecting lymph node metastases in patients with various types of cancer.
“Often the only way to see if cancer has spread to the lymph nodes is to surgically remove and/or biopsy it. Not only does that put the patient at risk, but we can never be sure whether we have the right node,” explained Dr. Harisinghani.
So Harisinghani began using nanometer-sized iron oxide nanoparticles to look for cancer-riddled lymph nodes.
The magnetic nanoparticles are injected into patients. If there’s no cancer present, the iron is absorbed into the lymph nodes, which appear black on an MRI scan. But if the cancer has spread, the lymph nodes continue to stay white on the MRI scan because lymph nodes with malignant cells are unable to absorb the nanoparticles. Harisinghani and his team have injected the particles into several hundred cancer patients and found metastatic cancers so small they would be very difficult for surgeons to find them.
“This is going to change the way we do clinical practice,” said Ralph Weissleder, director of the Center for Systems Biology, and the man who invented lymph node seeking nanoparticles. “Not only is it noninvasive, but it is incredibly accurate.”
No one knows the precise accuracy of this new technology better than 85-year-old Howard Arbetter. “A lot of my friends at my age had prostate cancer and the doctors said that I’ll probably die from it.”
But Arbetter wasn’t about to give up, so he came to the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. Today, six years after undergoing the cutting-edge procedure, he’s not only alive, but is able to work on his golf score knowing his prostate cancer is under control.
“Armed with a more accurate diagnosis, we were able to prescribe a more precise treatment—hormone therapy for Mr. Arbetter,” said Dr. Donald Kaufman, director of the Claire and John Bertucci Center for Genitourinary Cancers at the Cancer Center.
The technique has been successfully tested in more than 1,000 patients with prostate, breast, colon and testicular cancer and is awaiting approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It is the most accurate technique to detect the spread of cancer in lymph nodes with an over 90 percent accuracy rate.
And nanoparticles are also being used to detect chronic inflammation. Helping patients in the earliest stages of diseases like Alzheimers, heart disease and arthritis. Harisinghani says soon these tiny weapons will offer huge hope for those diagnosed with cancer. “We are well on our way to changing the way we detect the spread of cancer. Every cancer patient will benefit from this new technique.” He concluded, “we will be able to provide more precise treatment in a timelier manner and maybe even save lives.”
