17 year old girl finds possible cancer cure

[Brieze]

Did you guys hear about this? Amazing.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57358994/calif-hs-student-devises-possible-cancer-cure/

Angela's idea was to mix cancer medicine in a polymer that would attach to nanoparticles -- nanoparticles that would then attach to cancer cells and show up on an MRI. so doctors could see exactly where the tumors are. Then she thought shat if you aimed an infrared light at the tumors to melt the polymer and release the medicine, thus killing the cancer cells while leaving healthy cells completely unharmed.

[Davin]

That sounds awesome! I hope they can get it working.

[Tank]

Gosh! What a brillant youngster and a fantastic piece of work!

[Firebird]

Wow. I wonder how those nanoparticles distinguish between cancerous and non-cancerous cells. Either way, sounds very interesting and promising.

[Guardian85]

Science! It works, apparently...

Seriously, though. Can't wait to see where this is going.

[Siz]

Very cool.

I might start smoking again...

[McQ]

What this seems to be (despite CBS's amazing hyperbole) is a delivery system for certain types of cancer (or could be any kind, really) drugs. Not to lessen this young lady's research, because it's truly leading edge stuff; and for a 17 year old to come up with it is astounding.

But it's not a cure for cancer, it's not a new drug, it's simply a way of getting current drugs to the right place so they can work on killing just the cancer cells. It should probably work (the drug delivery system) in most solid tumors (doubtful it will have any use in lymphomas or blood cancers).

I'm totally thrilled to see that she was given the opportunity to do this. What a cool young lady.

[Ali]

I don't know McQ - the article mentioned that it zeros in on single cancer cells, so even if the cancer cells were floating in the blood or lymph, couldn't it potentially work the same way?  Anyway, very cool, and obviously this is a brilliant young lady!

[Firebird]

I don't know McQ - the article mentioned that it zeros in on single cancer cells, so even if the cancer cells were floating in the blood or lymph, couldn't it potentially work the same way?  Anyway, very cool, and obviously this is a brilliant young lady!

McQ is right. The headline on this article is very misleading. That's nothing against her discovery; if anything, it's a disservice to her for obfuscating the true purpose of her research.

[McQ]

I don't know McQ - the article mentioned that it zeros in on single cancer cells, so even if the cancer cells were floating in the blood or lymph, couldn't it potentially work the same way?  Anyway, very cool, and obviously this is a brilliant young lady!

Oh it's really cool. It's groundbreaking biotechnology. I've been unable to get time to read her research since I'm on a short vacation and traveling with my son for college auditions (going to major in piano performance). So I need to get back to my desk and get some time to find her paper to be sure, but it appears to be right now, at least, targeted at solid rumors. Hematology is a whole different animal, so to speak. Targeted therapies are becoming more useful, but not entirely successful yet. Hopefully I'll get time to read up on this genius's work. That kid must be scary smart!

[Whitney]

Having just been a judge in a science fair last week I have to emphasize just how remarkable even thinking about something like this is for a 16 year old.  Granted I was judging middle school but 16 isn't much older.  Most grade school students are doing good to grasp the scientific method.

[McQ]

Having just been a judge in a science fair last week I have to emphasize just how remarkable even thinking about something like this is for a 16 year old.  Granted I was judging middle school but 16 isn't much older.  Most grade school students are doing good to grasp the scientific method.

Exactly. This young lady is way, way ahead of not just her peers, but apparently also ahead of a whole lot of the people involved in biotech research.

[Asmodean]

Yes, Hal is correct.

From an engineering virwpoint, I see a couple of issues with this delivery system, however, I see no reason fro them to be too difficult to overcome...

[McQ]

Well, Siemens, who sponsored the competition has a bad link on its own site which otherwise would have given me more info, but with a couple of minutes digging, I got some additional data. First, it DOES look like this can target stem cells, which corrects my supposition that this would only be aimed at solid tumors. So that is really good. And I'm thrilled that she chose to target the cancerous stem cells, rather than concentrate on things like certain proteins that tumors express on their cells' surfaces. That's too limited. So she's really bright at the most obvious level.

Her name is Angela Zhang, and she's from Palo Alto, CA.

Other info: The study is called: Design of Image-guided, Photo-thermal Controlled Drug Releasing Multifunctional Nanosystem for the Treatment of Cancer Stem Cells.

In short, she's designed a nano particle that kills two birds with one stone. It can deliver a drug to CSC (cancerous stem cells) and aid in the accurate imaging of them. Nice bonus.
In the case here, she used the delivery mechanism to carry an antibiotic called salinomycin to the CSCs. Salinomycin has a direct effect on those CSCs and causes apoptosis, or cell death. Why it is fairly specific to CSCs is not totally known (and what is known is really for those with serious backgrounds in this shit!). Salinomycin is so far only shown effective in certain types of breast cancer stem cells*, so its potential use is very narrow. Also, it is not yet indicated for use in any cancer in the U.S., so it's only being used in in vitro in studies (in cultures, not in humans).

But no "cure" with salinomycin. Not even close. I wish the media would stop doing that shit.

So this is a long way off from being anywhere close to what is being touted as a "Cure for cancer", as is every article you've ever read with that same title. So-called "science writers" for the media are woefully lacking in (oftentimes both) science and writing education. Besides, their job is to sell papers, or increase ratings (I'm jaded about science writers obviously).

Again, taking nothing away from Angela Zhang. She's frigging brilliant. Really. Even more than I already gave her credit for, because I didn't know her study reached two different goals of drug delivery and accurate imaging until I read it.

*I did find one study from the British Journal of Cancer (BJC) just out this month, showing inhibition of growth of prostate cancer cells (again, in vitro.

[Tank]

Interesting stuff HAL.