Researchers from Stanford University have devised a method that could help in reducing side effects of chemotherapy. Researchers also claim that this method will increase effectiveness of chemotherapy.

Researchers affirm that the use of carbon nanotubes in chemotherapy for cancer patients has shown great results. Moreover, with the help of this method, same work can be accomplished with less amount of medicine.

Nanotubes can deliver drugs to tumor cells more precisely as compared to existing treatments. As medicine is directly injected into tumor cells so there are less chances of spilling of medicine into healthy cells.

Mice with tumor cells were injected with a standard formulation of the chemotherapy drug Taxol, and others with a version in which the drugs were bound to nanotubes. In these animals, tumor cells had been proliferating for about two weeks. Researchers found that tumor size in mice treated with nanotubes decreased to half as compared to mice treated with the basic Taxol. Nanotubes delivered 10 times medicine as compared to normal treatments.

Researchers claim that nanotubes are designed to slip through the walls of the tumor cells but not the healthy cells. The nanotube treatment exploits difference in porousness between the walls of healthy blood vessels and those found in tumor tissue.

Senior study author, Hongjie Dai, professor of chemistry said, “We are definitely hoping to be able to push this to practical applications into the clinic. This is one step forward. But it will still take time to truly prove the efficacy and the safety.”