nanocell or nanoparticle?

Innovative chemo treatment could kill cancer cells without harming the body
7:31pm Mar 11, 2018

Luchiano Mazzuco was just 15 months old when he was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system that has a survival rate of only 50 percent.

“We didn't even realise cancer existed in children. We thought ‘he's a baby how can he have cancer how did he get cancer’,” his mother, Mariam, told 9NEWS.

Eight rounds of chemotherapy saved Luchiano's life, but left him with hardened arteries, hair loss, a depleted immune system and at high risk of developing a secondary cancer.

“The chemo not only kills the cancer, but it kills everything else,” the boy’s father, Aldo, said.

Professor David Ziegler from the Children’s Cancer Institute added that “most of the time children in hospital is actually because of the chemotherapy rather than the cancer”.

Researchers at the institute are now testing the safety of a nanocell that delivers chemotherapy drugs directly to the tumour without harming healthy cells elsewhere in the
body.

Nanocells carrying the drug are coated with antibodies which help pinpoint exactly where the cancer cells are - they then attach to the diseased cells, releasing the drug inside and killing the tumour.

“It's packaging the chemo therapy into little packages that are like heat-seeking missiles that find their way to the cancer and directly target the cancer itself,” Prof Ziegler said.

Eight patients are currently undergoing the treatment, and so far none have shown any of the usual side effects assocated with chemotherapy - including hair loss.

Phase two of the trial could get underway within months.

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https://www.9news.com.au/national/2...ld-kill-cancer-cells-without-harming-the-body

The mechanism of the so-called nanocells mentioned above looks quite similar to that of tumor-specific antibody-conjugated nanoparticles such as PAT-DX1-NPs. Are they actually the same thing?

Any ideas would be appreciated.