Researchers working at the University Of Missouri have developed a new prostate cancer treatment that shrinks prostate tumours by 70 to 80%, is easy to make, and is far less harmful than traditional chemotherapy.
There are three steps to making the new prostate cancer treatment:
1) Gold is irradiated in a special machine (there are only a few) that gives it the right sort of radiation that can be used medically.
2) The gold is turned into nanogold. Nanogold works better in the body, according to the researchers, as other forms are changed and affected by the body. Note: Ionic gold is a neurotoxin, so it’s important to have gold particles, and for this prostate cancer treatment, size matters.
3) The nanogold is paired with an extract from tea, Epigallocatechin gallate, which delivers the nanogold directly to the tumour, reducing the amount of radiation other organs are exposed to. After about three weeks, the radiation dies off.
Pure gold is as safe as most foods (and often found as an ingredient in exorbitant ice creams and hamburgers). It’s mostly neutral within the human body, although it has medicinal properties that researchers have begun to explore. Besides this new prostate cancer treatment, its anti-inflammatory properties are being used in experimental treatments for arthritis.
Nanogold, instead of other metals like nanosilver, is particularly well suited to this new prostate cancer treatment because of gold’s nuclear properties.
The researchers say they expect their new prostate cancer treatment to work alongside chemotherapy (in aggressive cases of prostate cancer, the only ones that need treatment, the cancer cells are likely to spread to other parts of the body. Chemotherapy would go after those cells).
Studies on human prostate cancer cells in rats have been completed, studies on dogs are expected to start up soon, and they expect human trials to begin within five years. Note that five years is fairly fast: usually human trials are held up by a need to tweak treatments until harmful side-effects are reduced.
This is one of many new treatments promising to improve upon traditional cancer treatments. The next ten years look bright! How do you feel? Respond below!
