Cancer-removing Nano Robot
A team of Korean researchers developed a technology that can remove cancer without surgery using nano robots.
The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on November 1 that the team developed the world's first ultrasound dynamic treatment technology that can treat tumors without surgery using a smart nano robot remotely controlled by ultrasound.
The smart nano robot, which can be remotely controlled by ultrasound, is a nano-sized gold and titanium-based robot that goes after tumors and kills cancer cells immediately after being injected into human bodies. Ultrasonic dynamical treatment technology generates “reactive oxygen species,” a molecule containing oxygen with high chemical reactivity, and selectively releases them to tumor regions, thereby treating the tumors without surgery.
Therefore, it is expected that doctors will be able to apply this method to human bodies in the future and the method will help cure various kinds of cancer in important human organs such as liver cancer, breast cancer, kidney cancer and stomach cancer.
The team led by Park Jae-hyung, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University, conducted the study with the support of the Future Basic Research Support Project and the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Cancer Research and Development Project. The results of the study were recently printed in the international academic journal “Nano Letters.”
"This research suggested a new paradigm in the treatment of cancer by remotely controlling a nano-robot with ultrasound harmless without an operation or an anticancer drug,” professor Park said. “This study will overcome the limitations of current tumor treatment and contribute to lowering cancer mortality."
"If we conduct a study on nano-robots’ toxicity in human bodies after succeeding in animal tests, we will be able to apply this way to clinical trials soon," he added.