2014年1月7日訊  --康奈爾大學研究人員zui近研發出一種納米材料可能能夠摧毀血液中腫瘤細胞并防止癌細胞擴散。癌癥后期會造成癌細胞的轉移，使得腫瘤病灶遍布全身，zui終造 成患者死亡。負責這項研究的Prof Michael King表示由90%的癌癥患者zui終是死于癌癥擴散。而此項研究的結果則是相當令人振奮的，如果能夠zui終實現，將對癌癥治療起到十分重要的作用。不過目前 這一研究還處于早期階段，需要進行更深入一步的研究。

研究人員將一種名為Trail的蛋白附著在納米顆粒上，這種納米顆粒一旦進入血液將定位在白細胞上，白細胞即可據此定位在血液中擴散的癌細胞，試驗 結果顯示，結果顯著，血液中腫瘤細胞水平降低顯著。目前研究人員希望今后這種療法與化療、放療等療法結合起來。（生物谷Bioon.com）

詳細英文報道：

Cancer-killing "sticky balls" can destroy tumour cells in the blood and may prevent cancers spreading, early research suggests.

The most dangerous and deadly stage of a tumour is when it spreads around the body.

Scientists at Cornell University, in the US, have designed nanoparticles that stay in the bloodstream and kill migrating cancer cells on contact.

They said the impact was "dramatic" but there was "a lot more work to be done".

One of the biggest factors in life expectancy after being diagnosed with cancer is whether the tumour has spread to become a metastatic cancer.

"About 90% of cancer deaths are related to metastases," said lead researcher Prof Michael King.

On the trail

The team at Cornell devised a new way of tackling the problem.

They attached a cancer-killing protein called Trail, which has already been used in cancer trials, and other sticky proteins to tiny spheres or nanoparticles.

When these sticky spheres were injected into the blood, they latched on to white blood cells.

Tests showed that in the rough and tumble of the bloodstream, the white blood cells would bump into any tumour cells which had broken off the main tumour and were trying to spread.

The report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed the resulting contact with the Trail protein then triggered the death of the tumour cells.

Prof King told the BBC: "The data shows a dramatic effect: it's not a slight change in the number of cancer cells.

"The results are quite remarkable actually, in human blood and in mice. After two hours of blood flow, they [the tumour cells] have literally disintegrated."

He believes the nanoparticles could be used used before surgery or radiotherapy, which can result in tumour cells being shed from the main tumour.

It could also be used in patients with very aggressive tumours to prevent them spreading.

However, much more safety testing in mice and larger animals will be needed before any attempt at a human trial is made.

So far the evidence suggests the system has no knock-on effect for the immune system and does not damage other blood cells or the lining of blood vessels.

But Prof King cautioned: "There's a lot of work to be done. Various breakthroughs are needed before this could be a benefit to patients."