ABSTRACT
To help meet the goal of eliminating death and suffering from cancer by 2015, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is engaged in efforts to harness the power of nanotechnology to radically change the way we diagnose, image, and treat cancer. Already, NCI programs have supported research on novel nanodevices capable of one or more clinically important functions, including detecting cancer at its earliest stages, pinpointing its location within the body, delivering anticancer drugs specifically to malignant cells, and determining if these drugs are killing malignant cells. As these nanodevices are evaluated in clinical trials, researchers envision that nanotechnology will serve as multifunctional tools that will not only be used with any number of diagnostic and therapeutic agents, but will change the very foundations of cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
