A team of researchers in California and Massachusetts has developed a “cocktail” of different nanometer-sized particles that work in concert within the bloodstream to locate, adhere to and kill cancerous tumors.

The researchers designed one type of responder particle with strings of iron oxide, which they called “nanoworms,” that show up brightly in an MRI system, to identify the size and shape of a tumor before surgery. The second type is a hollow nanoparticle loaded with the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin.