"Researchers Look To Gold To Help Combat Prostate Cancer" - Max Gomez
The latest approach to treating prostate cancer uses nanoparticles of gold and lasers to kill the cancer cells. The beauty of gold is that it remains inert in the body until it’s hit with a laser beam and gets hot – so if you put tiny bits of gold into the tumor and then light it up with a laser, the heart would kill the cancer. “The idea that we can treat a specific spot within the prostate while sparing the normal tissue which include the nerves and the urinary sphincter so we can avoid these side effects,” said Art Rastinehad, DO, associate professor of urology and radiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The key to this focal therapy is first using advanced imaging that finds just the cancerous spots within the prostate. That’s where the gold comes in.
- Ardeshir R. Rastinehad, DO, Associate Professor, Urology, Radiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai