A bomb we can be proud of

I'm delighted to hear that researchers in the US have developed an anticancer "smart bomb" which delivers a lethal dose of drugs directly to tumors.

This tiny agent, called a "nanocell," enables precision targeting of the tumor while leaving adjacent healthy tissue unharmed, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.

Mice treated with the nanocell therapy survived beyond 65 days while mice treated with the best current therapy survived 30 days. Untreated mice survived for about 20 days, the researchers report.

This is very welcome news and it's great to see scientists leading the fight against cancer. I'm sure all of us have had family members or friends affected by cancer and it would be a marvellous triumph for mankind if we could consign cancer to the history books. Obviously that is a long way off but moves like this bring us ever closer to that day. Congratulations to the researchers involved.