Nanoparticles are all the rage in cancer treatment. But do they work?

There’s a lot of hype these days over nanoparticle-based cancer treatments, which try to shoot minuscule packages carrying drugs right to tumors. While many have succeeded in mice, very few have actually worked in clinical trials. Biochemist Warren Chan and his colleagues wanted to see how often those nanoparticle efforts fail, and what, if anything, could change that.