Now, I wouldn’t want to spell Prognosis without a ‘g’.

The freshly minted diagnostic field called “Theranostics” has no such qualm.

Since the field of diagnosis is running ahead of the somewhat slower field of therapeutics (where in some diseases, a success might be when efficacy is shown in 25% of patients), theranostics is the idea of working backwards from known, effective therapies to identifying their earliest germs.

 “Get ‘em while they’re hot, twofur one!”

In this particular case, researchers at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine have found that by coating a nanoshell (containing your favorite chemotherapeutic agent) with an additional layer containing an old favorite fluorescent dye (Indocyanine Green, ICG) and an iron oxide, they could then rely on the known thermopoptotic (see, it’s not that hard to properly mix words of Greek origin) (also, it’s not endogenous cell death, so –poptosis may not be appropriate, rather “photothermal ablation,” but it lacks a certain something) properties of nanoshells to further attack neoplasms.

So this could be called a “twofur” on two counts. You track the tumor with an MRI or fluoroscopy, and can attack the tumor chemotherapeutically (stuffed inside the nanoshell) and by zapping the nanoshell vehicle itself with a Near-Infrared laser (NIR) which converts otherwise harmless laser light into heat to kill the unwanted tumor cells.

Unless it is found that the antibodies affixed to the nanoshells attach to things other than the tumor, or that the nano-bits are not as inert in the body as we seem to think they are, this is a therapeutic domain to watch.

The nanoshells alone are in FDA trials currently; expect more nanothermotherapeutition.

Abstract: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122685871/abstract

Press Release: http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=13479&SnID=1485311153

Wikipedia (nanoshell): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanoshell