A scientific team at the Polytechnique Montral, one of Canada's leading engineering schools, reported this week that they were able guide microcarriers through a live animal's blood stream and deposit anti-cancer medicine directly on a targeted area on the animal's liver.

The carriers, made out of magnetic nanoparticles and biodegradable polymer, can be basically driven through arteries using a remote controlled device.

The importance of this work lies in the ability for doctors to get the cancer-fighting drugs directly to a tumor or cancerous tissue so the medicine doesn't harm healthy tissue in the body.

If harsh chemotherapy drugs can be diverted away from healthy tissue and aimed specifically at the cancer, the cancerous cells would receive a stronger blast of medicine and patients should have fewer debilitating side-effects from the treatment.

Sylvain Martel, director of the Nanorobotics Laboratory at Polytechnique Montral and a research leader, said reducing side effects was possible thanks to the nanoparticles of the microcarriers measuring just 50 micrometers in diameter, which is less than a human hair.