Just reading this news could make you beam.
Researchers from Oxford University have successfully trialled a new way of delivering cancer drugs to tumors, using an ultrasound beam, detailed by the researchers in The Lancet.
The trial involved injecting patients with heat-sensitive, chemotherapy-filled capsules. The drug was then heated and released by a focused ultrasound beam. The trial targeted tumors in the liver, heating them to above 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.5 degrees Celsius).
In the trial's 10 patients, the researchers found on average the amount of chemotherapy was around 3.7 times higher than before the exposure.
Like in Oxford, researchers around the world are fighting the war on cancer. Researchers at Duke University, targeting brain cancer, have been trialing a modified polio virus for the past five years. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign built a camera that mimics the visual system of a butterfly, making cancerous cells visible even under bright surgical lighting.
Discuss: A new trial uses heat-sensitive cancer drugs to target tumors directly
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