Nanomagnets tackle cancer
Technique uses heat to kill cancerous cells
By Janet Raloff
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A new wave of therapies can exert a magnetic hold over disease — literally. The therapies employ powerful, roughly spherical magnets to help kill carefully targeted diseased cells and nothing else. What makes these magnets special is their size. Each is about a thousandth the diameter of a human hair.
![In nanomagnetic cancer treatment, blue fluid with therapeutic nanomagnets targets tumor cells (right). But the nanomagnets leave healthy cells (left) alone.](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/8479.jpg?resize=300%2C222&ssl=1)
Most researchers in the field are designing these billionth-of-a-meter-scale magnets to serve as highly localized space heaters. Under the influence of an external magnetic field, the magnetic particles will warm to temperatures that will kill immediately adjacent cells.
Two U.S. research groups recently reported success in developing high-performance iron-cobalt nanomagnets for cancer therapy. New studies by another group describe the ability to target, track and deliver killer heat with a weaker, but potentially less toxic, class of cobalt-free magnetic nanoparticles.