Thursday, October 20 2005 15:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Houston: Breast cancer tumors could be a thing of the past as a discovery made by an Indian-American professor moots blowing up the carcinogenic lumps to pieces using tiny bombs developed by nanotechnology.

A team of researchers led by Balaji Panchapakesan, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Delaware, is opening a new front in the war on cancer, bringing to bear new nanotechnologies for cancer detection and treatment and introducing a unique nanobomb that can wipe away breast cancer tumors.

Panchapakesan, a native of Chennai who migrated to USA some 10 years back, told sources that the nanobombs are in the early stages of development, but the goal is to use them in medical applications.

"Make no mistake, we are focused on eradicating cancer," he said adding the research would take extensive testing and years of clinical trials before the nanobombs could actually be used in medical applications to treat human beings.

Nanobombs can be used to target any remaining cancerous cells and can be used in any part of the body, allowing the creation of nanobomb therapy for a wide variety of cancers.

Originally the research team was looking at the use of the carbon nanotubes as drug delivery vehicles. "Because they are smaller than the size of a single cell, the nanotubes can provide for the highly selective injection of drugs into individual cells," Panchapakesan said.

He said the nanobombs are tiny bombs on the nanoscale. "They work almost like cluster bombs, and once they are exposed to light and the resulting heat, they start exploding one after another".