It is the nature of my anxiety to manifest in what I lovingly call a cancerphobia.
Because of this, I listen a little more intently when scientists bring up a potential treatment – something that destroys those evil cells without taking out all the good ones.
Yesterday, as I pumped my arm and caught up on the February issue of Smithsonian, I came across a new hopeful glimmer (literally, sort of) in the “Phenomenon” section. In a nutshell, doctors are experimenting with injecting gold covered, spherical nanoparticles into cancerous tumors, blasting the spheres with near-infrared light, and letting those nanoparticles contaminate the tumor with heat.
Learn the rest in the Smithsonian article, “How Doctors Are Harnessing the Power of Gold to Fight Cancer.”
I mean, aren’t modern science and medicine amazing? Better, they find a trial that seems almost artful, bringing in the most sought after metal in history to possibly save us from the scourge of our time. That’s poetry, m’dears.