Nanotechnology in the Fight Against Cancer

The use of tiny machines to treat medical problems has been the topic of science fiction novels for as long as machines have been in existence. However, these miniscule machines aren't just the figment of an overactive imagination. For years now, scientists and engineers have teamed up to create molecule-sized machines for which there are varying purposes, depending on construction, of course. One particular area of nanotechnology currently showing a great deal of promise resides in the area of biology and medicine. Better still, is the promise it is showing in the area of cancer treatment. Perhaps nanotechnology is the path to a cancer cure, an end to one of the deadliest and most devastating diseases to plague the world today.

What is Nanotechnology?

Before one can fully understand the benefits of nanotechnology, one must understand what exactly nanotechnology is, and isn't. According to the National Nanotechnology Initiative (N.d) "Nanotechnology is the way discoveries made at the nanoscale are put to work." Using our topic of study, this means creating materials of nanoscale to fight cancerous cells within the body. These nano-creations must be small enough to fit inside the body, and smaller still in order to fit inside a human cell. As such, nanotechnology constructs and employs materials and devices that fit within nanoscale dimensions, which as Lexi Krock from PBS's NOVA Science Now program (2005) states "a nanometer is 1/80, 000^th the width of human hair." Using this sort of scale, it is easier to understand just how small nanotechnology is, and thus why it is so important in medicine and biology today.

Why Cancer?