By Yug (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
In a new article there was a study which discovered that ingredients in an ancient Chinese ink may be able to help fight cancer. This unique ink somehow kills cancer cells when heated and in studies shows itself to be highly effective:
During testing in the lab, the ink was found to be bio-compatible with human cells in a dish under normal conditions, but when heated killed cancer cells, showing greater efficiency at the same laser strength when the Hu-ink concentration was increased.
In separate tests with mice the ink was also highly effective, killing more cancer cells than a conventional PTT treatment, and again, no toxicity was observed in the animals injected.
Unfortunately for us these studies so far have only been done on cells in a dish or in animal models rather than actual randomized control studies on humans. Only by looking at the result of a randomized control trial in human beings can we know if this can be an effective cancer treatment in human beings. Overall it is another encouraging study in the fight against cancer which unfortunately is poorly designed so cannot indicate whether or not it works in people.