Question

Discuss in detail how nanotechnology is a cutting-edge advancement within the science and engineering fields that is beginning to find applications in health care on an experimental basis. Please cite your sources and explain in detail. Thank you

Answer 1

Answer: The promise and essence of the nanoscale science and technology is based on the demonstrated fact that materials at the nanoscale have properties (i.e., chemical, electrical, magnetic, mechanical, and optical) quite different from the bulk materials. One nanometer (nm) is one billionth of a meter, and it is also equivalent to ten Angstroms. As such, a nanometer is 10-9 meter, and it is 10 000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. A human hair diameter is about 50 micron (i.e., 50 × 10-6 meter) in size, meaning that a 50 nanometer object is about 1/1000th of the thickness of a hair.

The three core cancer treatments are chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. This trio has been instrumental in saving millions of lives from early cancer-related death, but they all have distinctive limitations, especially when it comes to their precision in targeting individual cells. In other words, they often damage healthy tissues while failing to completely eradicate cancerous ones. The use of nanotech may also be beneficial for earlier detection and diagnosis of cancer. For example, a nanodevice might help capture proteins associated with cancer, along with circulating tumor DNA and exosomes from tumors. More efficient detection can increase the chances of multi-year survival, pending proper treatment.

Nanotechnology can be used to develop devices that indicate when those markers appear in the body and that deliver agents to reverse premalignant changes or to kill those cells that have the potential to become malignant.