The effects of cancer are different for everybody. Sometimes it can be metastatic and the cancer can spread to other parts of the body, which can make it harder to treat. However, a new way of releasing chemotherapy treatment drugs via nanotechnology produced miraculous results as the disease vanished in test mice.

US researchers used a new technique that involved using a "nanoparticle generator" to administer chemotherapy to mice with lung cancer that has metastasized. They found that the cancer vanished completely in mice after eight months and this is considered to be an equivalent of 24 years in humans in terms of survival. All other mice that were given traditional treatment died in the study.

The researchers were able to successfully cure the lung cancer metastasis, which will serve as a new frontier for searching for the cure for metastatic triple negative breast cancer. The research is detailed in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Researchers Used Nanotechnology to Bypass a Tumor Cell's Drug Resistance Ability

The nanoparticle generator will allow chemotherapy drugs to seep into the tumors that are deep inside the body. Daily Mail notes that metastasized breast cancer can be fatal.

Lead researcher Dr. Mauro Ferrari of Houston Medical Research Institute took the cancer drug doxorubicin and placed it inside tiny silicon discs via nanotechnology to help it shield away from the cancer. Once it penetrates the tumor, the silicon breaks down and releases the inactive drug.

Once it is absorbed by the cancer cells, the drug becomes active and destroys the heart of tumor cells. The technique does not affect healthy cells so patients are not as susceptible to the toxic side-effects of chemotherapy.

"This may sound like science fiction, like we've penetrated and destroyed the Death Star, but what we discovered is transformational," Dr. Ferrari said, as reported by The Independent. "We invented a method that actually makes the nanoparticles inside the cancer and release the drug particles at the site of the cellular nucleus."

He adds that their invention could help make terminal cancer curable so that it's no longer a "death sentence."

Could This Be a Long-Term Cure?

According to Dr. Ferrari, patients often become terminal when the cancer has spread to their liver and lungs. Their research, if it becomes a functional cure for humans, could dramatically help extend the lives of patients and provide hope for others.

"If this research bears out in humans and we see even a fraction of this survival time, we are still talking about dramatically extending life for many years. That's essentially providing a cure in a patient population that is now being told there is none," he said.

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