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Published on February 2nd, 2012 | by Steven Hodson

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Researchers find that silver can kill cancer tumors better than chemo therapy, with less side effects





Apparently there is an old wives tale that silver is the magic bullet when it comes to fighting cancer and it seems that according to some new research this might indeed be the case.

British researchers who have been investigating the ability of silver to be used to fight cancer have found that it is as effect fighting and killing certain types of cancer cells but with far fewer side effects than seen with the most popular chemotherapy drugs like Cisplatin.

Researchers from the University of Leeds conducted lab tests which exposed breast and colon cancer cells to various silver-based chemicals over a six day period.

Results, published in journal Dalton Transactions, showed that these silver-compounds were ‘as effective as Cisplatin’ at killing cancer with potentially fewer side effects.

While the team are still unsure about how exactly silver battles cancer, they think its effectiveness may be caused by the structure surrounding silver atoms, known as its ligand.

They think this may help release the silver ion into cells when it enters the body, killing any cancer.

via The Daily Mail

Dr. Charlotte Willans, the study author, plans on taking the next year and looking closer at what effect silver has on both cancerous and healthy cells; and whether it could be a safe and effective anti-cancer drug.

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About the Author

Steven has been around the tech world long enough to see most of the stuff we think of cool happen before which leads to a certain bit of cynicism that has contributed to him being known as the cranky old fart of the Internet. Besides sharing some of the goodness that he finds with you here at 42x you can also find him curating some digital goodness at Winextra (tech type stuff) and Rotten Gumdrops (for your daily dose of WTF).



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