Gold Nano-Particles Deliver Chemotherapy Drugs Right to the Heart of Cancer Cells

...and in only two hours. Chemotherapy drugs normally take 2 days to concentrate on tumors. Research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society reported that gold nanoparticles injected into the bloodstream quickly accumulate within cancer cells. When loosely coated with chemotherapy drugs, the gold particles (each one less than 1/10,000th of the width of human hair) prove extremely lethal to tumors. After delivering their drug payloads, the gold harmlessly passes out of the body through the kidneys.  

This breakthrough promises not only to prevent chemotherapy from harming the rest of the body, but may also reduce the amount of chemotherapy drugs needed by at least a factor of 10.