It challenges the imagination to envision a device so small it has the ability to enter a cancer cell, take a look around, report on what is happening inside the cancer cell, and then possibly be instructed to destroy the cancer cell. The National Cancer Institute is imagining just such a new technology, called nanotechnology, and has established eight research centers to focus on the future of this exciting new method of treating cancer. The team science approach to research includes the Stanford Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Focused on Therapy Response, UCLA, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of Texas-Austin, General Electric Global Research and the Intel Corporation.

"There is a big shift in science and medicine right now toward saying - look, we can't just have individual labs doing their individual research," said Dr. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, professor of radiology and bioengineering director of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, "this is the other extreme of a large team of a diverse group of scientists and physicians. The first year, the biggest challenge is going to be getting these people working together."

According to the ambitious project leaders, if approved for human use, the nanoparticles could become useful for assessing a patient's response to therapy and in early diagnosis of cancer, when maybe only a few cells are cancerous. Currently, the best available methods can detect cancer only when a million or so cells have turned malignant.