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Sometimes it seems that medical research in America has to jump through so many hoops that the possibility for real innovation is stifled. Great Britain and Japan have made great strides in novel approaches towards treating cancer, and now Aussie researchers from the land down under are beginning human trials using a “Trojan Horse” nano-cell loaded with cancer drugs which can be targeted directly at cancer cells.

Most traditional cancer treatments (ie, chemotherapy) have powerful side effects as they damage healthy tissue as well as cancerous cells; however, these new nano-cells are readily incorporated into transformed cell lines, and most significantly, they can be deployed in “waves” containing different drugs without meeting any resistance. This is effective since physicians can fill the first wave of nano-cells with drugs to disarm cancer cells thereby making them more susceptible to upcoming waves. Pretty neat stuff. Hopefully the human trials will continue to produce promising results!

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As a third year medical student at Baylor College of Medicine, my posts are intended to educate others and share my experiences from this incredible journey without violating patient privacy at all costs. These blurbs are not to serve as a replacement for recommendations provided by licensed physicians under any circumstance.