Did you know drug resistance causes 90 percent of treatment failure for cancer patients? Now this may no longer be a problem, and diamonds are part of the solution.

According to a new study, Northwestern University in Illinois, researchers have discovered attaching chemotherapy drugs to nanodiamonds, tiny carbon-based particles between 2 and 8 nanometers in diameter, could present a drug delivery solution for cancers that are hard to treat.

This method has already been tested in mice with liver and breast cancers. Lead researcher Dean Ho has attached the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin to nanodiamonds. He then tested one group with doxorubicin-nanodiamond combination and another with the drug alone. The ones that were treated with the combination had higher levels of doxorubicin in their system, meaning they were less resistant to the drug. Levels were as much as 10 times higher even seven days later.

Researchers learned that the nanodiamond-doxorubicin combination reduced the size of tumors and increased the cancerous mouse's survival rate.  Nanodiamonds are also  non-toxic, do not cause inflammation, and are cheap to produce in vast quantities. The drug doxorubicin itself was also less toxic if released more slowly.

What makes nanodiamonds so helpful when combined with doxorubicin for the treatment of cancer patients? Researchers say there is something special about its surface chemistry.  Because the diamond surfaces have different properties, a drug could attach to a neutral surface rather than one with an electrical charge.

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