Sound Waves Kill Skin and Prostate Cancer Cells 107
Anonymous Coward writes "A recent Study
in the
British Journal of Cancer shows that the use of
Quercitin
and 20KHz ultrasound for 60 seconds killed skin and prostate cancer cells. 90% of the
abnormal cells were dead within 48hrs.
Since low frequency ultrasound was previously shown to enhance the skin penetration of
topical substances up to 1000 times, it would seem that a topical Quercetin cream with a low
frequency ultrasound wand might be just the ticket for those annoying little skin cancers that
tend to occur in older geeks who have spent a bit of time in the sun."
Text of Article for those who can't get BJC (Score:0, Informative)
Re:Slight problem eh? (Score:1, Informative)
And since when is 20 kHz 'low frequency'
Re:Misleading headline (Score:1, Informative)
the Quercetin. BTW calling Quercetin a drug is a misnomer. It
is a nutrient (bioflavanoid to be specific).
Re:Slight problem eh? (Score:2, Informative)
Sorry, there wasn't enough room to put Low Frequency Ultrasound
in the title. 20KHz is considered the low end of ultrasound.
Happy?
Re:Slight problem eh? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Only 90%? (Score:1, Informative)
problem -- http://www.tribuneindia.com/2001/20010221/cth3.ht
http://www.thepowerhour.com/curcumin/Turmeric.pdf [thepowerhour.com] (warning pdf)
I love it.
Picky, picky. (Score:5, Informative)
Pretreatment of cells with ultrasound (20 kHz, 2 W cm(-2), 60 s) selectively induced cytotoxicity in skin and prostate cancer cells, while having minimal effect on corresponding normal cell lines.
Selective toxicity is what cancer treatment is all about, so while the sound man not "kill" cancer, it's a promising treatment.
It would be nice to see the actual studies. I'd like to see the statistics, and see if any other methods were tried and the researcher's reasoning. It may be that dysplastic cells are susceptible to sonic damage and this might work with other therapy methods, such as xray or heat. I'd also like to know how they treated prostate cancer, which is the number two cancer killer of men in the US.