Chemotherapy with nanobubbles more effective in killing cancer cells

Researchers may how found a new treatment for cancer cells, and it is not what you would think. "Plasmonic nanobubbles" are now being experimented with by the researches at Rice University, as well as the University of Texas and other cancer centers. These "bubbles" originate from converting laser energy with light-harvested nanoparticles. They consist of air and water vapor, and are being injected into cancer cells to test for a new possible treatment of single-celled cancer. If this approach is successful and with further testing, it will avoid the killing of healthy cells, which normally happens during chemotherapy sessions.



Researchers have found that chemotherapy combined with nanobubbles are 30 times more deadly to cancer cells than treatment of today. Not only is this treatment more effective, but the required dose is less than 10% of the original clinical dose. Nanobubbles work by forming underneathe cancer cells, and as they burst, drugs are released into the open holes of the cancer cells. This specific treatment has not yet been tested on animals and will need to provide many more experiments, however a study has been done on zebra fish in which exploding nanobubbles did not harm surrounding healthy tissue.