Diamonds, New Drugs for Cancer

Diamond is a girl's best friend. Diamonds can also cure cancer.

Researchers from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois found the drug combination chemotherapy with carbon particles called nanodiamonds. This finding a solution for cancer treatment. Standard anticancer drugs are usually doomed to failure by 90%, in the treatment of malignant cancer.

Nanodiamonds is carbon-based particles with diameter between 2 and 8 nanometers. These particles are not toxic, and does not cause inflammation as well as cheap when produced in large quantities.

Ho said the surplus was due to nanodiamonds chemicals on its surface. This diamond surface has different properties, such as electric charge sehingg drug attached to a neutral surface. The results of this study have been published in this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine this March.

Lead researcher Dean Ho and her colleagues tested the technique on mice with liver cancer and breast. They provide anti-cancer drugs doxorubicin and nanodiamonds.

For the first group of mice given the drug combination doxorubicin-nanodiamond and another group only with the drug without nanodiamonds. Found, the effectiveness of doxorubicin in rats 10 times higher in mice given nanodiamond compared with mice given doxorubicin.

The research found that nanodiamond-doxirubicin significantly, able to reduce the size of tumors in mice and improve survival.