Download annotated bibliography p3 final

Kajy 1
Marvin Kajy
Jule Wallis
ENG 3010
07-07-2010
Annotated Bibliography for Project Three
Williams, Linda, & Adams, Wade. (2007). Nanotechnology demystified. New York: McGrawHill Professional.
This book provides the reader information about the many biological, chemical, physical and
environmental aspects of nanotechnology. The authors provided a detailed section about how a
drug delivery system powered by nanotechnology will work and what its potential benefits are.
They started out by saying that the body is a complex system with different components. It is
therefore important that drugs are delivered to areas where they are needed the most, which
involves the process of bioavailability. Bioavailability is the process of delivery healing
molecules to area where they are needed the most. In this book, the author explains that with the
help of nanobots, drugs will be able to cross cell membranes and get into the cell, were the
replication of viruses and diseases take place. Current treatment methods stop when they reach
the cell membranes. This information is essential for my research because I want to show how a
drug delivery system powered by nanobots will be able to treat patients more effectively in
comparison with current treatment methods.
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Sargent, Ted. (2006). The Dance of molecules. New York: Basic Books.
This book is about the future applications of nanotechnology in the fields of environmental
science, information technology and medicine. The author explained how nanotechnology was
bound to change the future of the medical field forever. This new technology has the potential to
contribute many benefits to the medical field by providing an effective way for a patient to be
diagnosed, an efficient drug delivery system, and the ability for doctors to create custom made
organs for transplant patients. The writer argues that today’s chemotherapy treatments lack the
precision and control in delivering drugs he mentions various flaws of the chemotherapy
treatments. To illustrate, one of the major flaws of the treatment is that it targets rapidly dividing
cells, which includes both tumor cells and healthy cells. Examples of health cells include, cells
that produce hair, nails and that cells that enable the normal functioning of the intestinal system.
This produces side effects such as nausea, hair loss, vomiting et cetera. Another flaw of
chemotherapy is that the effects of the drugs wear off too quickly and they do not enable
physicians to control the concentration of the drug in the blood stream. This book fits perfectly in
my research, because I want to show the weaknesses of chemotherapy treatments and how
nanotechnology can improve on those weaknesses.
Johnston, L., (2001). Lung Cancer. Sebastopol: O'Reilly.
This book provided excellent background information about lung cancer and it gave detailed
explanations of the types of treatments for this disease. The author mentioned the types of lung
cancer and their stages. The most common treatment options include surgery, radiotherapy and
chemotherapy. Both the benefits and the flaws were discussed for each treatment method. The
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thing that I liked most about this book is that included actual stories of people describing their
experiences on how they coped with the disease. This book supplied me with information that
was very essential for my research, because in order to perform a good research about lung
cancer, one has to first familiarize him/herself with the disease first.
Gasman, L., (2006). Nanotechnology Applications and Markets. Norwood: Artech House
Publishers.
The thing that I like about this book is that it provided the reader in depth information about the
types of drug delivery systems that nanotechnology is most likely to impact. These types of drug
delivery systems range from injectable delivery systems to transdermal systems. Also, the author
gave examples of companies and universities that already have performed research in these types
of delivery systems. Furthermore, of these types of drug delivery systems, implantable delivery
systems seem to be the most promising. The structures that will be employed by this system are
called “nanoshells”, which consist of a metal casing. These nanoshells can convert light energy
into heat, which allows the destruction of tumor cells. This book provided important information
for my research because it allowed me to become familiar with a specific drug delivery system
that will be of potential use for cancer treatment.
Langwith, J., (2009). Nanotechnology. San Diego: Greenhaven Press.
This book talks about both the positive and negative implications of nanotechnology in the
medical field. It starts out by talking about how nanotech devices will be capable of detecting
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cancerous cell at a very early stage and with the help of nanotechnology, physicians will be able
to kill off specific cancer cells, without harming the body’s healthy cells. This means that these
drugs will be needed at lower doses and have a fewer side effects. Despite all these benefits, the
author also argues that nanomedicines have the potential to cross the blood-brain barrier or enter
many sensitive tissues easily and it is a major concern that these molecules may cause long term
unintentional harm to healthy tissues. Another ethical issue is the protection of medical
information in a nanotechnology based era. This technology will be able to collect an enormous
amount of information regarding a person’s health. With such an exponential increase in the
amount of medical data, many people are concerned that medical professionals in the field will
be unable to analyze this constant stream of data because only a few health institutions are
adopting electronic medical record systems. It is therefore a concern that a large amount of
health information is generated, but without a system to use it. If such a system exists, then
ensuring privacy and confidentiality of one’s personal information is another challenge that has
to be overcome. This book is very relevant to my research because I am planning on discussing
both the benefits of this new technology and also its own short comings.
Hughes, G. (2005). Nanostructure-mediated drug delivery. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology,
Biology and Medicine, 1(1), 22-30.
This journal stated that the most popular ways to administer drugs to patients was either orally or
through an injection. The fact that most drugs have been designed to be administered this way,
has greatly limited the progress of drug development. Next, the article explains that there are
many potential drug delivery alternatives that can bring many benefits such as reducing side
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effects and reducing health care costs. Then, the article went on the give various examples of
new drug delivery systems. To illustrate, some systems employ the use of biological structures to
release drug molecules, while other are metal based systems that are being designed to only
release drugs when the nanoparticles are excited by a magnetic field. The author concluded that
in order to improve current treatment methods, the medical field has to employ these new drug
delivery systems. These systems would give doctors the ability to administer medications at an
exact time and location in the body. As scientists gain more understanding of the inner workings
of the cell, more specific drugs will be developed that will treat the cause of a disease rather that
its symptoms. This article is very important for my research because it provided me with various
examples and in depth information about several new ways that medicine might be administered.
Guthi, J, Yang, S, Huang, G, Li, S, & Khemtong, C. (2010). Mri-visible micellar nanomedicine
for targeted drug delivery to lung cancer cells. Molecular Pharmaceutics, 7(1), 32-40.
This article talks about how polymer based nanoparticles are being integrated in a drug delivery
system for cancer treatment. This research group performed a study that used a lung cancer
targeting nanoparticles for MRI imaging and therapeutic delivery. The authors stated that current
chemotherapy treatments for lung cancer simply lack the specificity to treat a patient effectively,
which prompted them to develop therapies that target tumors specifically, while simultaneously
improving results and lowing side effects. In the beginning of the experiment, the research group
synthesized the polymer based nanoparticles and they grew their own tumor cells. During the
actual experiment, the research group used these nanoparticles to see to what extent these
nanoparticles were attracted to the cancer cells. Various machines (including an MRI machine)
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were used to see how and in what quantity these nanoparticles targeted the cancer cells. When
the results were gathered, it turned out that these nanoparticles displayed a high specificity for
cancer cells and based on these results the research team concluded that this high specificity
opens up many exciting opportunities for targeted therapy of lung cancer. The research team did
admit that one of the machines used to measure the concentration of certain chemicals might not
have been strong enough and recommended a better machine for future experiments. This
manuscript is very important for my research because this manuscript proves that progress is
being made in the field of nanomedicine and the experiment performed provided an excellent
example of how specific these nanobots are.
(2010). Lung Cancer. Retrieved from http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=lungcancer
This website gave a very good overview about what the current statistics are behind lung cancer
and what the most popular treatment methods are. First, it turns that more than 25 % of all
diagnosed cancers is lung cancer. If a patient is diagnosed with lung cancer at an early stage,
then the primary treatment method will be surgery. To illustrate, the primary purpose of cancer
surgery is to cure the cancer by removing all of it from the patient’s body. The surgeon usually
does this by cutting into the body and removing the cancer along with some surrounding healthy
tissue to ensure that all of the cancer is removed. The surgeon may also remove some lymph
nodes in the area to determine if the cancer has spread. This helps the doctor assess the chance of
the patient being cured, as well as the need for any further treatment. The information provided
by this website is essential for my research because it gives me good background information to
assess this treatment method and see how nanotechnology can improve on its weaknesses.
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(2009). Treating Cancer with Chemotherapy. Retrieved from
http://www.chemotherapy.com/treating_with_chemo/treating_with_chemo.jsp
What I liked about this website is that it explained how chemotherapy worked and its effects on
the patient. This particular treatment method is especially used for tumors that have spread
throughout the body via the blood stream. Chemotherapy involves the use of chemical agents to
kill cancer cells, which can be administered through an injection or orally. Chemotherapy works
by destroying rapidly dividing cells, which is the main characteristic of a tumor. Unfortunately,
this treatment method cannot tell the difference between a cancer cell and a healthy cell. So
chemotherapy eliminates not only the fast-growing cancer cells but also other fast-growing
healthy cells in your body, including, hair and blood cells. This causes many undesirable side
effects such as low blood cell count, nausea, vomiting et cetera. The information provided by this
source is important because I want to show in my paper how nanotechnology can improve on
chemotherapy treatment. In order to do so, I need more detailed information about the treatment
procedure and its side effects.
Chan, V. S. (2006). Nanomedicine: an unresolved regulatory issue. Regulatory Toxicology and
Pharmacology, 46(3), 218-224.
This article first started out by talking about the benefits that nanotechnology can bring to the
medical field, which range from new diagnostic techniques to revolutionary drug delivery
systems. The advantage of these drug delivery systems lies in their size. To illustrate, a smaller
size allows drugs to reach areas where it was unable to get to before. Most medications
administered today cannot get inside the cell, which is where the replication of viruses and
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bacteria takes place. Fortunately, with the help of nanotechnology, scientist will be able to
construct these at such a small size, that they will be able to cross the cell membrane and go to
the heart of the disease. Then, the article started talking about the potential dangers of
nanomedicine. The author stated that despite all the benefits that nanotechnology has to offer,
very little attention is devoted to assess the safety of nanotechnology with regards to human
health. For example, many materials that are actively used by this technology are actually highly
toxic. Also, the fact that nanomedicine makes use of small components is what also makes it so
dangerous. In fact, the author stated that other research is showing large materials tend to
become more toxic when they are reduced to microscopic particles. This article provided very
important information about the potential health risks of nanotechnology. This is something very
important to keep in mind when writing my paper. I have to realize and admit that there might be
issues with the treatment methods that nanomedicine has to offer too.
Schmitz, K. H., Holtzman, J., Courneya, k. S., Mâsse, L. C., & Duval2, S. (2005). Controlled
Physical Activity Trials in Cancer Survivors: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 14(7), 1588-1595.
This is a scientific journal that did a research study to see whether physical activity during or
after completion of cancer treatment, will improve a patient’s quality of life. The authors started
by stating in the intro that over the past decades, various treatments emerged in an attempt to
counter lung cancer. Although these cancer treatments were very effective for improving a
patient’s survival rate, they have always been toxic in numerous ways and they produced both
negative physiologic and psychological effects in the patient. This prompted the research team to
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study whether any physical activity will lower these effects in the patient. The way they
approached this problem was by analyzing earlier studies that were performed about physical
activity in lung cancer patients. The results obtained from this experiment were computed by use
of a software program called ES. From the results obtained, the research team concluded that
physical activity during or after completion of cancer treatment improves cardio respiration and
it lowered the severity of many side effects. This article is very relevant for my research because
it specifically mentions that current cancer treatments are very harmful to the patient and that is
something I am trying to prove.
Stöppler, M. C. & Marks, J. W. (2010). In Lung Cancer. Retrieved from
http://www.medicinenet.com/lung_cancer/article.htm
This website provided very helpful information about what lung cancer is, how it is caused and
what the primary treatment options are. The thing that I liked most about this source was that it
provided very good information about radiotherapy treatment. To illustrate, the article stated that
even though radiotherapy is intended and designed to maximize damage to tumors, it can also
cause damage to normal cells, especially those that are in the path of the radiation beam.
Although, different patients respond to radiation therapy differently, many of them develop
serious side effects, which can range from fatigue to development of scar tissue in the lung. Even
after the cancer is completely gone, there is still possibility that it might come back due to the
cancer causing effects from the radiation from the actual treatment. This source provided me
with good information about how radiotherapy works and what its affects are on the patient.
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(2009). Types of surgery for lung cancer. Retrieved from
http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/type/lung-cancer/treatment/surgery/types-of-surgery-forlung-cancer
This website gave very good details about how the surgery procedure was performed. It started
out by talking about the three types of surgery used to treat lung cancer, which were the removal
of a section of a lung, the removal of a lobe of the lung and the removal of an entire lung. The
article went on further to describe each type in detail. Specifically, the goal of surgically
removing a tumor is to totally eliminate the cancer cells, rather than to relieve symptoms as in
the other two treatment methods. Nevertheless, this medical procedure is very invasive because
actual lung tissue is removed, which often times makes the recovery process difficult. In the end,
the article stated that if the cancer cells had already spread then surgery will not resolve the issue
and the patient has to then turn to other treatment methods such as radiotherapy and
chemotherapy. The source is very good for my research because it described in detail how a
tumor in the lung was removed. It also described some of the flaws that this treatment method
suffers from. I need to familiarize myself with these flaws and look for ways on how
nanotechnology will improve on them.