top of page

Cancer Survival Amidst Nanotechnology Breakthrough: What Do You Need to Know?


Nanotechnology system
Photo by Author using Wonder Digital Art

Medicine and healthcare, in general, have experienced significant progress in the last couple of decades. Despite the multitude of medical science and technology breakthroughs, the prevalence of cancer in the United States and globally still lingers at a high level.

Cancer Facts & Figures 2022 shows that the new cancer-related and death cases reached 1.9 million in the United States alone.

Furthermore, the prevailing traditional cancer treatments offer substantial benefits towards extending life span and quality of life. Yet, the response to these treatment modalities strongly depends on the type, location, pathology, and extent of cancer.

Cancer treatments like chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or surgical procedures are far from specific. Most of the latter medicines negatively affect the healthy structures in the body as it destroys the cancer tissues.

Nanotechnology is changing this trend!

The Most Advanced Scientific Breakthrough is Personalizing The Course of Cancer Treatment

Precision Medicine is a branch of Personalized Medicine that primarily focuses on precisely delivering medical treatment and patient care.

For instance, concerning cancer treatment, Nanotechnology renders it personal and specific for that patient.

A personalized cancer therapy via precision medicine, thus destroying cancer cells and sparing normal cells.

The contemporary advances in cancer therapy are widespread, highlighting every scientific discipline from cancer prediction and diagnosis to treatment and prevention. Those include anything from intelligent pills and Nanorobots to Genetic based disease prevention. All these, hand in hand, play a significant role in patient-tailored approaches to cancer.

The Role of Nanotechnology in Cancer Therapy

Nanotechnology pertains to a branch of science and technology. This constituent of modern science embraces designing, producing, and using devices, structures, and systems that pertain to manipulating objects and molecules of as little as 100 nanometers.

The utility of nanotechnology expands across industries, none the less its recent disruption of the healthcare system (cancer care in particular) deserves a specific highlight.


Cancer treatment using nanotechnology
Photo by Author using Wonder Digital Art

The healthcare Nanotechnology, also called the Nanomedicine market, is still in its infancy; however, expected to project to reach a CAGR of nearly 11.9% in years to come.

Recent reports suggest the emergence of Nanotechnology utilization to develop vaccines against cancer. Novel technology is an invaluable tool in the form of "Nanoparticles," which stimulate patients' immune response against tumor cells, just like inducing an immune response against an infection.

Many people have already received Nanotechnology based Vaccines, even though they may not be aware. That is the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. These vaccines are, indeed, lipid nanoparticles. The same technology, in general terms, is in the research pipeline for cancer therapy.

Research suggests cancer immunotherapy or vaccine-based treatment plays a substantial role in stopping the progression of cancer cells and their associated elements.

Cancer vaccines are one of the most popular ways of treating and preventing various cancers. Moreover, an earlier cancer diagnosis can render cancer vaccine treatment more efficient. Likewise, high-risk individuals benefit from preventative cancer immunization.

Also, at this stage, more evaluations are warranted.

Such a requirement is due to the current Nanotechnology vaccine limitations.

The major challenge is that every cancer or tumor possesses its unique antigen and is diverse in every tumor. Antigen serves as the target for the vaccine.

Cancer is typically caused by numerous genes, making it challenging to develop vaccines. Likewise, proper target determination becomes complex.

In summary

Nanotechnology is an evolving branch of healthcare delivery and medical science. It is already transforming how physicians treat various diseases, including cancers. Thus advances in nanoscience have already started directing the generation of new disruptive Nanostructures in the healthcare industry.

Reference

  1. Hoeben, Ann, et al. "Personalized Medicine: Recent Progress in Cancer Therapy." Cancers vol. 13,2 242. 11 Jan. 2021, doi:10.3390/cancers13020242

  2. Anjum, Sumaira, et al. "Emerging Applications of Nanotechnology in Healthcare Systems: Grand Challenges and Perspectives." Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 14,8 707. 21 Jul. 2021, doi:10.3390/ph14080707

  3. Alshamsan, Aws. "Nanotechnology-Based Cancer Vaccine." Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) vol. 1530 (2017): 257–270. doi:10.1007/978–1–4939–6646–2_15

  4. Feng, Chan, et al. "Emerging vaccine nanotechnology: From defense against infection to sniping cancer." Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B vol. 12,5 (2022): 2206–2223. doi:10.1016/j.apsb.2021.12.021

  5. Koyande, Navami Prabhakar, Rupali Srivastava, Ananya Padmakumar, and Aravind Kumar Rengan. 2022. “Advances in Nanotechnology for Cancer Immunoprevention and Immunotherapy: A Review” Vaccines 10, no. 10: 1727. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10101727

  6. Cancer Facts & Figures 2022| American Cancer Society [WWW Document], n.d. Cancer Facts & Figures 2022| American Cancer Society. URL https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics/all-cancer-facts-figures/cancer-facts-figures-2022.html (accessed 1.31.23).

  7. What Is Personalized Cancer Medicine? [WWW Document], 2012. . Cancer.Net. URL https://www.cancer.net/navigating-cancer-care/how-cancer-treated/personalized-and-targeted-therapies/what-personalized-cancer-medicine (accessed 1.31.23).

  8. Nanotechnologies: 1. What is nanotechnology? [WWW Document], n.d. Nanotechnologies: 1. What is nanotechnology? URL https://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/opinions_layman/en/nanotechnologies/l-2/1-introduction.htm (accessed 1.31.23).

  9. Markets Ltd, R. and, 2022. Healthcare Nanotechnology (Nanomedicine) Market — Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecast (2022–2027) [WWW Document]. Healthcare Nanotechnology (Nanomedicine) Market — Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecast (2022–2027). URL https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/4520159/healthcare-nanotechnology-nanomedicine-market (accessed 1.31.23).

  10. Nanotech startup brings a new approach to cancer vaccine [WWW Document], 2023. Modern Healthcare. URL https://www.modernhealthcare.com/technology/flashpoint-theraputics-cancer-vaccine-nanotech-chad-mirkin-northwestern (accessed 1.31.23).

  11. Garland, A., 2022. Council Post: Three Ways Nanotechnology Is Changing The Healthcare Industry [WWW Document]. Forbes. URL https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/07/20/three-ways-nanotechnology-is-changing-the-healthcare-industry/ (accessed 1.31.23).

  12. Huang, T., Peng, L., Han, Y., Wang, D., He, X., Wang, J., Ou, C., 2022. Lipid nanoparticle-based mRNA vaccines in cancers: Current advances and prospects [WWW Document]. Frontiers. URL https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.922301/full (accessed 1.31.23).

11 views
bottom of page