Media Backgrounder

Fighting Cancer with Nanotechnology:
The NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer

Nanotechnology is the development and engineering of devices so small that they are measured on a molecular scale. This emerging field involves scientists from many different disciplines, including physicists, chemists, engineers, information technologists, and material scientists, as well as biologists. Nanotechnology is being applied to almost every field imaginable, including electronics, magnetics, optics, information technology, materials development, and biomedicine.

The Size of Things

Nanoscale devices are somewhere from one hundred to ten thousand times smaller than human cells. They are similar in size to large biological molecules (“biomolecules”) such as enzymes and receptors. As an example, hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen in red blood cells, is approximately 5 nanometers in diameter. Nanoscale devices smaller than 50 nanometers can easily enter most cells, while those smaller than 20 nanometers can move out of blood vessels as they circulate through the body.

Because of their small size, nanoscale devices can readily interact with biomolecules on both the surface of cells and inside of cells. By gaining access to so many areas of the body, they have the potential to detect disease and deliver treatment in ways unimagined before now. Since biological processes—including events that lead to cancer—occur at the nanoscale at and inside cells, nanotechnology offers a wealth of tools that are providing cancer researchers with new and innovative ways to diagnose and treat cancer.

Nanotechnology is Here

Work is currently being done to find ways to safely move these new research tools into clinical practice. But there are already examples in clinical use that show the promise of nanotechnology.

• Nanotechnology has been used to create new and improved imaging techniques to find small tumors. Researchers have shown that incredibly small iron oxide particles (nanoparticulates) can be used with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to accurately detect cancers that have spread to lymph nodes, without requiring surgery.

• Nanoscale drug delivery devices are being developed to deliver anticancer therapeutics specifically to tumors. Liposomes are one such “first generation” nanoscale device. Liposomal doxorubicin is used to treat specific forms of cancer, while liposomal amphotericin B treats fungal infections often associated with aggressive anticancer treatment. Recently, a nanoparticulate formulation of the well-known anticancer compound taxol was submitted as a new treatment for advanced stage breast cancer.

• In the near future, nanoscale devices may lead to detection of the earliest stages of cancer while simultaneously delivering anticancer agents to the tumor. Early research has shown that nanoparticulate sensors can detect the cell death that occurs when a cancer cell succumbs to the effects of an anticancer drug. As a highly sensitive means of determining if a therapy is working, this application of nanotechnology could save a patient from months of ineffective medication and debilitating side effects, allowing a switch to a potentially more effective course of treatment. In addition, such a sensor could greatly accelerate clinical trials of new anticancer agents, again by demonstrating very early signals of the effectiveness of a drug.

The NCI envisions over the next five years that nanotechnology will result in significant advances in early detection, molecular imaging, assessment of therapeutic efficacy, targeted and multifunctional therapeutics, and the prevention and control of cancer.

Strategic Implementation: The Cancer Nanotechnology Plan

The NCI has been a leader in funding cancer-related nanotechnology research for the past five years. NCI has adopted several strategies to support efforts that will ensure a cancer nanotechnology research portfolio that is comprehensive and strategic. Among these are:

• Continued funding of nanotechnology research;
• NCI supported cancer nanotechnology symposia;
• Coordinated research efforts between intramural and extramural research; and
• Development of the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL)

Based on the positive results from pilot-scale programs, the NCI has developed the Cancer Nanotechnology Plan (CNPlan), a planning document designed to detail the process involved in accelerating the application of nanotechnology to cancer research.

The CNPlan is a focused strategy to capitalize on past NCI investments in nanotechnology and direct those and new efforts on the immediate mission of the NCI. The plan carries an aggressive timeline and specific milestones to achieve the NCI goals. The projects initiated under the CNPlan will be integrated, milestone driven, and product oriented. The efforts will include targeted objectives and goals, and will use a project-management approach to help capitalize on today’s opportunities to create the tools that both cancer researchers and clinicians need. These initiatives are focusing on applying research and translating it into clinical products.

The NCI has devoted the past year to soliciting input and feedback on the Cancer Nanotechnology Plan from a large cross-section of the cancer community. But as mentioned, nanotechnology – and cancer nanotechnology specifically – involves elements of numerous disciplines, including chemistry, physics, biology, material science, and others. These are disciplines that have traditionally worked independently. The fundamental premise of the CNPlan is that this undertaking will only succeed with widespread participation from all these disciplines and partners. As a result, the funding mechanism chosen for the initiative stresses interdisciplinary team efforts involving partners from across the cancer research and nanotechnology development communities.

Based on the input NCI has solicited from researchers and clinicians, the cancer community will be extremely involved in the implementation of this plan. NCI will continue to utilize traditional funding mechanisms to further promising research, and will supplement these efforts with a targeted approach.

Moving Ahead Safely

Concerns have been voiced that nanotechnology, specifically biomedical nanotechnology, may be advancing too fast, and regulatory agencies are not able to adequately address potential safety concerns. The NCI recognizes the importance of advancing our knowledge and understanding of the technology, while also ensuring that the technology is safe and effective. The success of efforts in the field is contingent upon scientific excellence in research and development that is both ethical and safe for the body and the environment. The NCI is systematically addressing these issues within the purview of its biomedical expertise and its collaborations, primarily through the newly developed Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory. The NCI has partnered with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to help develop criteria to define all the key physical and biological characteristics of nanodevices intended for use in cancer-related nanotechnology research. Furthermore, the NCI is expanding its interaction with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to facilitate smoother transition from bench-to-bedside by ensuring that researchers have sufficient and appropriate data to guide the development of safe and efficient nanodevices.

Funding

The NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer represents an investment of $144.3 million over five years. The NCI, based on its experience in funding cancer nanotechnology research and on the input received from cancer and nanotechnology experts across the country, envisions that a major initiative in applied cancer nanotechnology has great potential to lead to significant clinical advances. Given the urgency of developing new diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive measures to fight cancer, NCI believes that nanotechnology is primed to be further explored as a tool in our arsenal against cancer. This initiative is one of several that NCI supports to further enable the early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer for the benefit of human health.