Gold has long had a history of service in the medical field for society. Since medieval times, gold has been used to benefit health with the long term belief that a metal so rare and beautiful must also provide healthy benefit to humans. These beliefs turned out to have some merit after all when gold salts were used for its anti-inflammatory purpose, as well as successful use in fighting arthritis and similar conditions.
The dawn of nanotechnology has seen gold use increase in various new ways. Nanotechnology is now also testing the use of gold in brand new medical trials that may provide exciting results for cancer treatment in this nanotechnology age.
“In medicine, gold nanoparticles can serve as a simple, elegant platform upon which potent therapies may be bound. In this clinical trial the nanoparticles, which were coated with both an immune-avoiding molecule and a potent anti-cancer agent, were shown to be very well tolerated and to target solid tumors. There is hope that such targeting technology will be effective against a range of cancers, including lung, pancreatic, breast and ovarian cancer.”
The success of these trials may provide new ways to fight against cancer, using gold nanoparticle-based therapeutics to be used before surgery, in hopes that the gold particles may assist in pre-surgery therapy and possibly avoid surgery altogether.
As the value of gold continues to rise, more uses for gold have begun to emerge in today’s technological driven world.
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