When you mention the word cancer, people can’t help but think of a life and death fight. For many years, doctors used various weapons such as radiotherapy and
chemotherapy to fight cancer and have won many victories. Now, several new powerful weapons are being created to fight cancer.
Many people are disgusted by fat, because excess fat can cause obesity as well as many other diseases. But during a recent medical experiment, scientists discovered that the fat cells have an extraordinary ability with a little modification
. It looks like a soap bubble, empty in the center and covered with a layer of oil on its outer surface.
With such characteristics, scientists can convert it into a missile to shoot at
cancer cells. In the past, people usually used viruses as carriers to transport
drugs and genetic substances into the body. But the human immune system usually
regards them as invaders, resists them, and attacks.
Modified fat cells have a similar structure with human body cells and can easily
pass through the human immune system undetected. This can help anti-cancer drugs reach their targets and destroy cancer cells. Now, doctors are using fat cells
to carry adriamycin, an anti-cancer drug, to treat cancer patients. Scientists
find that a tumor is an unrestricted mass of hyperplastic cells and has a very strong self-replication capacity. If it isn’t stopped, it will continue to grow.
To defeat it, we need both good strategy and powerful weapons.
In modern wars, missiles can track targets and hit them accurately. Can we develop a weapon to track cancer cells and kill them? Years ago, laser technology that could be used to treat cancer was invented in Chongqing, Southwest China, and
was considered an important breakthrough by the international medical community.
The key to this new technology is a new weapon, a photochemical missile.
This purplish red liquid is called Hematoporphyrine. It’s used as the shell of
the photochemical missile. It has two remarkable characteristics: first, it has
an extraordinary affinity for malignant tumors; second, it is very sensitive to
light, α,β,γ rays and oxidants. These two characteristics are the key to killing cancer cells. When Hematoporphyrine enters the body through the veins, it will follow blood flow and soon reach the malignant tumor tissue and then tightly
bond to it.
Then, we use a special wavelength of laser to irradiate these tumors. The Hematoporphyrine inside them will produce photochemical reactions and emit fluorescence, which can help us locate the tumors accurately. When we use another wavelength of laser to irradiate the tumors, the photo-sensitive Hematoporphyrine will produce univalent oxygen ions, a secret weapon, which can kill malignant tumor tissues.
The whole process won’t cause any damage to the body. This is a human liver tumor prior to treatment. After three treatments, it basically has disappeared. Now
, the photochemical missile technology has entered the clinical phase and is extending the life and improving the health of increasing numbers of cancer patients.
