For the last four years, the MU School of Medicine has researched the effect of certain particles on cancerous tumors. This week, the Department of Radiology published its findings in the international medical journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine. MU scientists found that injections of engineered radioactive gold nanoparticles directly into a tumor will reduce its size. The larger the tumor, the more difficult it is to treat and surgically remove the tumor. 

Raghuraman Kannan and Kattesh Katti are the co-principal investigators researching and testing the drug.

"There are not many drugs that can reduce the size of the tumor," said Kannan. "We have a drug now, which can reduce the size of the tumor, which makes it operable now. Inoperable now becomes operable."

The first stage of research tested the nanoparticles on mice, and then researchers tested dogs and pigs. Scientists found an average 82 percent decrease in tumor size in mice. 

"When you administer these nanoparticles within the tumor, they tend to remain in the tumor for as long as it takes to reduce the size of the tumors," Katti said.

The MU research reactor is one of the only sites in the world with the ability to produce gold nanoparticles.

"This is probably the most promising result we could expect," said Andrew Kurtz of the National Cancer Institute. "The next stage will be to hopefully move things into clinical trials to see if we see the same effect in humans." 

MU scientists predict human testing will begin in 2011. If human testing does begin, researchers say it will take about five years for the FDA to approve the drug for human treatment.