The mortality rate of primary ovarian cancer is low. The primary cancer tumor can be removed, but the problem is metastatis: free-floating cancer cells can spread the disease throughout the body.

John McDonald, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA and colleagues are developing a treatment device that removes the ascites fluid, which builds up in the peritoneal cavities of ovarian cancer patients, and adds magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to it. The MNPs selectively attach to cancer cells and can be magnetically removed from the fluid before it is reintroduced to the patient.

Tests in mice have shown that tumor progression is ten-times slower after treatment. The team hopes that this external filtration method will become as common as dialysis and turn cancer into a chronic, manageable disease.

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• Targeted removal of migratory tumor cells by functionalized magnetic nanoparticles impedes metastasis and tumor progression
  K. E Scarberry , R. Mezencev, J. F McDonald,
  Nanomedicine 2011, 6(1), 69-78.
  DOI: 10.2217/nnm.10.103