Tiny ‘Smart Bomb’ Targets Cancer Cells

Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have produced a microscopic cancer “smart bomb” that has been found to locate and destroy cancer cells in mice, substantially prolonging their lives. The core of the drug is a microscopic cage of carbon and nitrogen atoms enclosing a single atom of radioactive actinium-225.

The cage is attached to an antibody that locks onto the surface of a cancer cell and then moves inside, taking the actinium with it. Radioactive decay of the actinium then kills the tumor cell. The team reported in the Nov. 16 issue of Science that untreated mice lived an average of 43 days before dying of cancer, while those treated lived up to 300 days.

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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II