NANOTECHNOLOGY IN CANCER THERAPY

Cancer is caused by damage of genes which control the growth and division of cells. Detection/diagnose/treatment is possible by confirming the growth of the cells and treated by rectifying the damaging mechanism of the genes or by stopping the blood supply to the cells or by destroying it. The application of nanotechnology for cancer therapy has received considerable attention in recent years. Cancer nanotechnology (an interdisciplinary area of research in science, engineering and medicine) is an upcoming field with extensive applications. Recent developments in nanotechnology have provided researchers with new tools for cancer imaging and treatment. This technology has enabled the development of nanoscale devices that can be conjugated with several functional molecules simultaneously, including tumour-specific ligands, antibodies, anticancer drugs, and imaging probes. Since these nanodevices are 100 to 1,000-fold smaller than cancer cells, they can be easily transferred through leaky blood vessels and interact with targeted tumour-specific proteins both on the surface of and inside cancer cells. Keywords: tumour, chemotherapy, liposomes, nanoparticles, treatmen