--- title: "Doctors Test Brain Implant That Destroys Tumors" description: "A team of researchers at Stanford Medicine have created what they hope will one day be a life-saving treatment for brain cancer: a wireless brain implant." date: "2022-10-20" modified: "2022-10-20" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/doctors-brain-implant-destroys-tumors" categories: - "Brain" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "brain" - "brain cancer" - "cancer" - "gold nanoparticles" --- # Doctors Test Brain Implant That Destroys Tumors ![A team of researchers at Stanford Medicine have created what they hope will one day be a life-saving treatment for brain cancer: a wireless brain implant.]() *\Image: Getty Images\* A team of researchers at Stanford Medicine [have created]() what they hope will one day be a life-saving treatment for some of the most deadly and hard-to-treat cancers. They've come up with a small, wireless brain implant that, armed with heatable nanoparticles, targets brain tumors — no anesthesia, chemotherapy, or radiation required. If it sounds too good to be true, it still is — at least for now. The device, as detailed in [a paper]() published in the journal *Nature Nanotechnology*, has only been tested in mice, and likely has a while to go before it'll be implanted in any human brains. That being said, the results thus far are incredibly intriguing. The methodology here isn't entirely new. Photothermal treatment, or the use of light to heat cancer-destroying nanoparticles, has been used to target brain cancers in the past. As of now, though, such treatment is only possible via open-skull surgery. The tumor itself has to be exposed to the light source, which is far from straightforward and highly invasive. That's where this remote-controlled implant, packed with specially designed gold nanoparticles, comes in. The device — which took four years to create — is designed to be implanted between the skin and the skull. Once implanted, those little gold nanoparticles are injected into the tumor itself through a tiny hole in the skull. With the flip of a switch, the device emits an infrared light that, according to the press release, "can penetrate brain tissue to activate the nanoparticles" to a temperature that kills cancer cells without harming the surrounding brain tissue. "The nanoparticles help us target the treatment to only the tumor," Hamed Arami, PhD, a former postdoctoral fellow at Stanford Medicine and co-lead author of the paper, [said in a press release](), "so the side effects will be relatively less compared with chemotherapy and radiation." To test their device, the scientists behind the project implanted the tech into the skulls of mice with brain cancer. The mice were then treated with the internal photothermal blast for just 15 minutes each day over the course of 15 days. Excitingly, the treated mice survived two to three times longer on average than a control group of untreated mice. When coupled with chemotherapy, the rodents lived even longer. Although, as the scientists are careful to note, it's difficult to understand what that might mean for humans, as our species have very different life spans, especially when it comes to more aggressive types of cancer, like glioblastoma. "Glioblastoma patients don't often live more than two to three years after diagnosis because you can't get rid of every part of the tumor, and the tumor can become drug-resistant or radiation-resistant," Arami added in the statement. "The goal is to combine this with other treatments to extend survival." The device certainly has a long way to go and has yet to be tested in humans — but the research sounds promising, nonetheless. **More on nanotech for the brain:** *[Scientists Create Injectable Swarm of Brain Reading Nanosensors]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()