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Radiotherapy is a strong tool in fighting cancer, but one great downside is that it affects both healthy and cancerous cells. Focusing radiotherapy on just tumors is the goal of researchers at the MBN Research Center in Frankfurt, who have found a way to to use nanoparticles to direct treatment where it's needed.
The researchers have shown that the production of low-energy electrons by radio-sensitizers made of carbon nanostructures hinges on a key physical mechanism referred to as plasmons, which is a collective excitation of valence electrons.
The technique relies on radio-sensitized nanoscale compounds that are generally rare metals, including coated gold, platinum, or gadolinium. Alternatives from carbon-based nanoparticles that are biocompatible and nontoxic.
To learn more about this research, see the published journal article here.