Treatments that take into account the physics of can- cer cells and tumours could, however, offer radically new approaches, especially when combined with nano- technology. As far as the NCI initiative is concerned, it is mainly focused on pure research and is not seeking to develop new treatments, although one group at the Houston Physical Sciences-Oncology Center in Texas, led by Mauro Ferrari, is trying to get gold nanoparticles inside cancer cells to see if microwaves can literally cook the cells to death. The holy grail, for me at least, would be to discover a simple on–off switch for cancer that could be thrown by manipulating a well-understood parameter such as temperature.
