Dr. Sarah Blair is a breast cancer surgeon who’s involved in nanotechnology research at UC San Diego. The researchers are attempting to find solutions that would reduce the need for follow-up surgeries. | Stephen Whalen

But nanotechnology — the science and technology of making and manipulating materials at the tiniest of scales — could one day provide patients with new treatments and technologies that reduce the need for more invasive techniques.

Doctors might use nanotech devices, for instance, to identify and monitor tumors just starting to develop, to hunt and kill those tumors without harming healthy cells or to sense how much drug is present in the body.

“We believe that nanobio companies have a lot of potential because they address the spe­ci­fic needs of human health,” said Lloyd Tran, director of the nonprofit International Association of Nanotechnology of San Jose.

In the clinic, the biggest challenges reside in coming up with less toxic methods for deploying nanodevices inside the body.

One local group of researchers led by UC San Diego professor Michael Sailor demonstrated they could do just that — using brightly luminescent silicon-based nanoparticles. The devices can carry drugs through the bloodstream, lodge into tumors long enough to show up on an imaging screen and then degrade into harmless byproducts.

Another local UCSD researcher, nanoengineering professor Joseph Wang, said he envisions a system where the body’s glucose levels would automatically trigger nanodevices capable of administering insulin.

Toxicity still presents challenges, he said, although he envisions “many exciting opportunities and applications which are limited only by our imagination.”

Biologist Andrew Kummel leads another team of government-funded UCSD researchers who are studying breast cancer tumors using a Band-Aid-like technique. By rubbing the surgically removed tumor with a kind of sticky slide, researchers can determine whether any cancerous cells remain along the tumor’s edges, a sign there’s more cancer to remove nearby.

Using nanotechnology staining techniques, cells picked up off the tumor appear on a computer screen as either blue, for healthy cells, or green, indicating cancer.

Kummel and his team, working in conjunction with the NanoTumor Center at UCSD’s Moores Cancer Center, aim to develop an automated bedside device capable of scanning the sticky slides to determine whether the surgeon has removed enough of the tumor while the patient is still in the operating room.

For the 100,000 women who undergo lumpectomy procedures, in which only the tumor and some surrounding tissue is removed, in the United States every year, as many as half require a second surgery, according to UCSD breast cancer surgeon Dr. Sarah Blair, who coordinates with Kummel’s team.

The nanotech researchers are attempting to find solutions that would reduce the need for follow-up surgeries, and consequently reduce health care costs.