Abstract
Nanotechnology is an emerging interdisciplinary field dedicated to the manipulations of atoms and molecules that lead to the construction of structures in the nanometer scale size range that retain unique properties (1). In the past decade, the field of nanotechnology has grown into a diverse interdisciplinary mix of engineering, computer science, biology, and medicine. Through nanotechnology, we are now able to study unique biology, chemistry, and physics at nanoscale levels. The field of nanotechnology shows promise in cancer. This special issue on nanotechnology in cancer contains articles that focus on the application of nanotechnology in advancing cancer detection, diagnosis, and treatment. The aim of the issue is to present to the cancer community a review of the current status of cancer nanotechnology, which is rapidly advancing. Recently, many nanotechnology tools have become available which can make it possible for clinicians to detect tumors at an early stage. The nanostructures can potentially enter the single tumor cell, which can help improve the current detection limit by imaging techniques described in this issue. The goal, for example, in the case of breast cancer is to accurately detect less than 100 tumor cells in contrast to mammography, which requires more than 1,000,000 cells for clinical diagnosis. Targeting and local tumor delivery is the key challenges in both diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Nanotechnology can help diagnose cancer using dendrimers and kill tumor cells without harming normal healthy cells by tumor selective delivery of genes using nanovectors. These and other technologies currently are in various stages of discovery and development. The papers presented in this issue give an overall view of how the field is advancing.