If the older generation of scientists and health advocates never figure it out, at least there’s hope the younger generation might come up with a cure.

By young, I mean really young — 17 years old, to be exact. That’s the age of Angela Zhang, a high school student in Cupertino, California. Hard to believe, but a child may be leading us out of the wilderness of cancer. Keep reading and I’ll tell you more…

Angela is the child of Chinese immigrants. From all accounts, she’s an average American girl who likes shoes and is still learning to drive. But from a science perspective, she’s come up with and proven a radical treatment theory that may hold the cure for cancer.

The first non-invasive, targeted
way to kill cancer stem cells

In her spare time, and as a high school freshman, Angela started reading doctorate-level papers on bioengineering. While only a sophomore in high school, she was able to convince Stanford University to let her do lab work there. And as a high school junior, she started doing her own research.

If you ask her, she simply came up with a “cool” idea and wanted to see if it worked. That cool idea was to mix the cancer medicine salinomycin in a polymer that was built to attach to nanoparticles. Nanoparticles are measured in billionths of a meter — nanoparticles operate at the atomic level.

Angela was interested in nanoparticles with a chemical property that drove them to attach to cancer cells.

In a further brilliant step, she added gold and iron-oxide components to the particle that causes them to show up on an MRI — a safe, non-invasive form of imaging.

The final step is that once the doctor sees — by using the MRI — that the polymer particle has attached itself to cancer cells, he can aim a laser at the particle that causes it to release the lethal salinomycin chemotherapy drug embedded in the particle. The laser-activated drug kills the cancer cells without harming nearby healthy cells.

This is highly sophisticated science that has plenty of graybeards gaping in wonder. The chemotherapy agent is mixed with a nanoparticle polymer cocktail that attaches only to cancer cells AND shows up on an MRI — like “X marks the spot” on a pirate’s map. This cues the doctor to aim his laser at the cancer. The laser causes the particle to release the chemo drug, and the cancer is killed while healthy cells remain unharmed.

Using this approach, Angela reasoned, doctors will be able to locate actual cancer cells within the body without having to cut anyone open. Plus, it would be a highly accurate way to find out exactly where tumors are growing.

Incredibly, the treatment appears to work

Zhang says she was prompted to explore a cure for cancer after reading about the poor survival rates of patients who undergo cancer treatment. She noted (just as I’ve mentioned many times in this newsletter) that cancer stem cells resist most allopathic (conventional) cancer treatments. That’s why she chose to focus on killing the stem cells.

Once she came up with an idea for a new treatment, she started by testing her theory in mice. Incredibly, the tumors disappeared almost completely.

She even entered the idea into a national science contest sponsored by Siemens. She won a cool $100,000. Zhang called it a “Cinderella moment for a science nerd like me.”

The most amazing thing is that Zhang’s cure has the potential to both overcome cancer cell resistance to treatment while at the same time making it possible to monitor the effects of treatment in real-time, thanks to the imaging approach.

The one downside is that it’ll take at least ten years of testing in humans before her cure can be used widely used. Angela herself estimates it may take as long as 25 years. That doesn’t say much for our stuffed-with-money cancer establishment.

Alternative doctors have tried something similar

And, actually. . .there’s an alternative approach that uses similar principles and has been around for years. It goes by a number of different names — cytoluminescent therapy, photoluminescent, photodynamic therapy.

The therapy consists of injecting a patient with a photosensitizing agent — a chemical substance that becomes active only in the presence of a certain type of light. The therapy makes use of photosensitizers that selectively build up in cancer cells. Then the cells are exposed to light of a certain frequency, which activates the photosensitive chemical and kills the cancer cells. I’ve heard of both natural and manufactured agents being used.

It’s a promising therapy that’s been around for at least a decade, mostly in a couple of Irish or UK clinics, but hasn’t widely caught on. You can read more about this and over 350 other alternative cancer therapies in our new 460-page book, The Complete Guide to Alternative Cancer Treatments. The photodynamic approach is described on page 365.

You can’t lose, because the book is FREE when you join our new Alternative Cancer Research Institute. ACRI members receive constant email updates to the book and database (which aims to collect every known alternative cancer treatment in one place). Members also receive a monthly interview with a top cancer expert. Click here to learn more and join.

First goal should still be prevention

Of course, all this wonderful new light-sensitive technology only offers a possible treatment for cancer. While that would mean a huge relief to millions, and would save many lives, it’s not the same as preventing cancer from ever occurring. Zhang herself dubbed it the “Swiss army knife of cancer treatment.”

Let us never forget that our first goal should be to do what we can to prevent cancer from developing in the first place. And while nobody knows exactly how to do that, we do know that healthy foods, exercise and a lifestyle that’s as chemical-free as possible are good first steps.

Beyond that, I welcome all the Angela Zhangs of the world to cure cancer at last. Zhang herself plans to go on to be a research professor so she can focus on treatment experiments full-time.

On another subject entirely. . .cancer and cancer treatments can put a damper on your sex life (no surprise there). But there are a few things you can do about it. After all, cancer patients need affection and support more than ever. If you missed what we had to say about this important subject, just click here and read it now.