If you or a loved one has prostate cancer, there’s some good news on the horizon.
Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have been using gold nanoparticles to target prostate cancer cells with minimal side effects.
Targeting prostate cancer with gold
The series of ongoing clinical trials has been using small layers of silica glass formed in the shape of a sphere and coated with a thin layer of glass. These tiny particles enter the prostate cancer cells as they run across them, allowing researchers to stimulate them with lasers. Once stimulated, the nanoparticles vibrate and pulse with extreme temperatures, killing the cancerous tissue.
Best of all, there are very few side effects because the nearby healthy tissue is unharmed. By avoiding damage to the urinary sphincter and vital nerves in the region, men don’t experience impotence and urinary incontinence, which are both common with other types of treatment for prostate cancer.
“The side effects of current prostate cancer can be extremely traumatic,” says Chair of the Division of Urology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Dr. Steven Canfield. “This new technology holds the potential to eliminate those life-altering effects, while still removing the cancer tissue and reducing hospital and recovery time.”
Not convinced? Consider that the trial’s first participant even rode his bike within a week of treatment!
Prostate cancer in the United States
According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men in the country (after skin cancer), and the second leading cause of cancer-related death (after lung cancer) for American men.
Still, most men who develop prostate cancer don’t die from it, largely due to early diagnosis.
For men with a diagnosis of prostate cancer in the local stage (i.e., not spready beyond the prostate), the five-year relative survival rate is nearly 100%. Even when looking at all prostate cancer stages (including those with cancer that has spread), the survival rate is 99%.
