Nanotechnology for Cancer Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment

Symposium sponsors:
Symposium Chairs:	Mansoor Amiji , Northeastern University ( ) Srinivas Sridhar, Northeastern University ( )

Confirmed Speakers

Gregory J. Downing Director, Office of Technology and Industrial Relations, National Cancer Institute (speaker biography) Nanoparticles in Cell Imaging John V. Frangioni, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard University (read more) Mansoor Amiji Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Northeastern University, US Vladimir Torchilin Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University

Mauro Ferrari Davis Heart & Lung Research Institute, Ohio State University (speaker biography) New Nanocrystal Assemblies for Use in Cancer Research Paul Alivisatos, University of California Berkeley (speaker biography) Semiconductor Nanocrystal Probes for Human Chromosomes Peter E. Barker, National Institute of Standards and Technology Dennis Carson Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego (speaker biography)

Welcome

Towards the end of eliminating suffering and death from cancer, the National Cancer Institute is engaged in efforts to harness the power of nanotechnology to radically change the way we diagnose, image and treat cancer. The NCI-NSTI Nanotechnology for Cancer Special Symposium will run in parallel with the Nanotech 2005 and the BioNano 2005 providing a unique multidisciplinary environment directed towards addressing the challenges of cancer research and treatment.

Video Journey Into Nanotechnology

Watch Video Journey Into Nanotechnology (provided courtesy of NCI)

Synopsis

Nanotechnology has the potential to have a revolutionary impact on cancer diagnosis and therapy. It is universally accepted that early detection of cancer is essential even before anatomic anomalies are visible. A major challenge in cancer diagnosis in the 21st century is to be able to determine the exact relationship between cancer biomarkers and the clinical pathology, as well as, to be able to non-invasively detect tumors at an early stage for maximum therapeutic benefit. For breast cancer, for instance, the goal of molecular imaging is to be able to accurately diagnose when the tumor mass has approximately 100-1000 cells, as opposed to the current techniques like mammography, which require more than a million cells for accurate clinical diagnosis.

In cancer therapy, targeting and localized delivery are the key challenges. To wage an effective war against cancer, we have to have the ability to selectively attack the cancer cells, while saving the normal tissue from excessive burdens of drug toxicity. However, because many anticancer drugs are designed to simply kill cancer cells, often in a semi-specific fashion, the distribution of anticancer drugs in healthy organs or tissues is especially undesirable due to the potential for severe side effects. Consequently, systemic application of these drugs often causes severe side effects in other tissues (e.g. bone marrow suppression, cardiomyopathy, neurotoxicity), which greatly limits the maximal allowable dose of the drug. In addition, rapid elimination and widespread distribution into non-targeted organs and tissues requires the administration of a drug in large quantities, which is often not economical and sometimes complicated due to non-specific toxicity. This vicious cycle of large doses and the concurrent toxicity is a major limitation of current cancer therapy. In many instances, it has been observed that the patient succumbs to the ill effects of the drug toxicity far earlier than the tumor burden.

This symposium will address the potential ways in which nanotechnology can address these challenges. Distinguished speakers will summarize the current state of the art and future barriers. Contributions are also solicited in the following topics.

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Topics and Applications

• Science and technologies for cancer diagnostic and imaging techniques using nanoparticles as reporter platforms and contrast enhancing agents;
• Bionalaytical nanotechnology for detection of biomarkers
• Nanoparticle platforms polymeric nanoparticles, lipid nanoparticles, metal nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles, and self-assembling nanosystems;
• Synthetic chemistry required to design and optimize new strategies for nanoparticle preparation and functionalization;
• Therapeutic targeted and intra-cellular drug and gene delivery using nanocarriers;
• Nanoparticles for delivery of electromagnetic energy for hyperthermia and thermal ablation of tumors;
• Theoretical modeling of nanoparticle processes in biological and medical environments, and of drug and gene delivery;
• Combination therapies (drug and energy delivery) using nanoparticles
• Clinical diagnosis and therapy of prostate, breast, and liver cancer.