Application of nanotechnology in cancer treatment

Nanoscale metallic materials, also called nanomaterials have attracted enormous amounts of interest due to novel properties compared to conventional (microcrystalline) materials. Specially, during the last years nanoscale magnetic materials have the potential to be used in many different biological and medical applications. For example, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with a mean particle diameter of about 10 nm suspended in appropriate carrier liquids are commonly called ferrofluids and have outstanding properties. In these materials the normal macroscopic domain structure transforms into a single domain state. Hence, a wide range of both metallic and oxide magnetic nanoparticles, has been synthesised. Magnetic nanopartcles, due to their large surface and interaction with different tissues can be applied in research. The main area of applications are detection and analisis of bioparticles, directed transport of medicaments, contrast during magnetic resonance research and hyperthermia.
A somewhat surprising application of magnetic nanoparticles lies in the production of controlled hea-ting effects. Each cycle of a hysteresis loop of any magnetic materiał involves an energy loss proportional to the area of the loop. Hence if magnetic nanoparticles having the required coercivity are remotely positioned at a given site in the body, perhaps the site of a malignancy, then the application of an alternating magnetic field can be used to selectively warm a given area. It has been proposed that this simple physical effect could be used both to destroy cells directly or to induce a modest increase in temperature so as to increase the efficacy of either chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The paper reviews research on the application of superparamagnetic metal/alloy nanoparticles in cancer therapy.