(December 22, 2010 – PRNewswire) — The World Gold Council (WGC) revealed that a phase 1 clinical trial of a unique nanomedicine was sucessful. The medicine uses gold nanoparticles as the core of a delivery system for tumour-targeted drug delivery.

The research, published in the current edition of Clinical Cancer Research, was carried out by US-based life sciences company CytImmune Sciences Inc. Read the abstract here.

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 tumours. There is hope that such targeting technology will be effective against a range of cancers, including lung, pancreatic, breast and ovarian cancer.

Dr Lawrence Tamarkin, CEO of CytImmune Sciences Inc. said: "This phase 1 clinical study potentially marks the beginning of a new strategy in cancer treatment where gold nanoparticle-based cancer therapeutics are used first, before surgery, to reduce tumour burden. Reducing tumour size may require less sophisticated surgeries to remove any residual tumour, leading to shorter hospital stays and to improved patient outcomes. Phase 2 clinical studies will prove the value of this novel drug delivery platform."

The WGC put out a paper titled ‘Gold for Good: Gold and nanotechnology in the age of innovation,’ earlier in 2010 to chronicle the use of gold nanoparticles in a range of fields. The report demonstrates how gold nanoparticles exhibit a variety of unique properties.

Dr. Richard Holliday, director, technology at the WGC said: "Gold has a long history in the biomedical field, being the material of choice in many diagnostic platforms and a key constituent for rheumatoid arthritis treatment. The dawn of the ‘nano-age’ has further broadened the potential of gold in biomedical applications and it is exciting to see the outcome of this clinical trial, which suggests that gold can act as an effective and safe drug delivery system."

Learn more about CytImmune at http://www.cytimmune.com/

The World Gold Council (WGC) is the market development organization for the gold industry. Read its paper, "Gold for Good: Gold and nanotechnology in the age of innovation," here:
http://www.gold.org/download/rs_archive/gold_and_nanotechnology_in_the_age_of_innovation.pdf

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