A Cure for Cancer

A Cure for Cancer by William Halal Friday, May 30, 2008

Nanotech agents destroy cancer cells one at a time After decades of limited progress, today better drugs, nanotechnology, and molecular biology are producing hundreds of far more sophisticated treatments that are selective, non-invasive, and safe. Nanotech agents are especially promising because these tiny robotic devices are intelligent enough to seek out cancer cells, they are small enough to enter the cells and destroy them with no side effects, and they are safely removed later by the kidneys. Piotr Grodinski, Director of the US National Cancer Institute, summed up the state-of-the-art recently: "Five years ago there were no treatments for the FDA to consider. Today there are 30 small companies working in the field, a handful are in clinical trials, and we expect 3-4 more this year." TechCast estimates cancer patients will approach normal life spans by about 2023 +/- 8 years, although our experts' confidence in this forecast is somewhat low at 60%. See our forecast for Cancer Cure. Source: Josh Wolfe, "Nanotech Puts Cancer in the Cross Hairs, " Forbes.com, 2/22/08