Now, 'Pied Piper highway of death' technique to treat cancer

Georgia Tech researchers have come up with a "Pied Piper" approach to treating cancer, as they engineer artificial pathways to lure malignant cells to their death, instead of relying on drugs to kill tumors.

Brain tumors known as Glioblastoma multiform cancer (GBM) are a particularly insidious form of the disease because they just don't stay still. They travel through the brain by sliding along blood vessels and nerve passageways.

This means that sometimes they move to parts of the brain where surgery is extremely difficult-if not impossible-or that even if the bulk of a tumor can be removed, chances are good its tendrils would still exist throughout the brain.

Scientists at Georgia Tech may have come up with a novel solution for this problem; though, it may be years before the technique can be used on humans, CNet.com reported.

It involves creating artificial pathways along which cancer can travel. These pathways could route cancer to a more easily operable area, or even to a deadly drug located in a gel outside the body.

According to Ravi Bellamkonda, lead investigator and chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, "the cancer cells normally latch onto ... natural structures and ride them like a monorail to other parts of the brain. By providing an attractive alternative fiber, we can efficiently move the tumors along a different path to a destination that we choose."

Not only does Bellamkonda think his technique could be used to relocate and/or destroy cancers, he says he believes it could be used to help people live with certain inoperable cancers as a chronic condition.

The research is published in the journal Nature Materials.