World Cancer Day

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With the aim of spreading good practices and good habits, warning and preventing cancer, today is celebrated the World Day to Combat Cancer. Currently, in Brazil, this disease is the third leading cause of death and it is estimated that, each year, eight million people are diagnosed in the country.

Despite the high rates, the reality of cancer patients has improved, as preventive habits and early diagnoses are disseminated - the result of a paradigm shift. What has counted is awareness.

Campaigns such as breast self-examination and routine exams have contributed to the detection of the disease in its initial phase, which can increase the possibility of cure by up to 90%. In addition to prevention, other weapons have emerged, such as new technologies.

One of these examples is the study being carried out with nanostructures - particles with a billionth of a meter - capable of bombing, with precision, cancer cells, without damaging the tissue around them. They are also able to diagnose tumor formation long before they have a chance to become a threat. Remember the movie Tron? That's it.

And how does this work? According to Wanderley de Souza, head professor at the Carlos Chagas Filho Biophysics Institute, at UFRJ, and director of Inmetro Programs, in the area of ​​health, nanotechnology can be used in two ways. "First, in the development of medical equipment using nanodevices that control the movement of magnetic fields in superconductors. Second, in the preparation of nanoparticles. In the latter case, we may have magnetic particles that can be associated with cells and molecules that may have their fate traced by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance when injected into animals", he explains. He points out that it is also possible to use nanotechnology in the treatment of other diseases, as drugs can be associated with nanoparticles. And these nanoparticles, in turn, can be targeted more specifically to a particular location in the body.

(Source: Health in Motion - www.saudeemmovimento.com.br)

Want to know more?
Read Here: (http://saude.hsw.uol.com.br/ouro-nanotecnologia1.htm)