Nov. 30) –- Doctors may have discovered an unlikely tool to kill cancer cells: tiny magnetic discs, too small to be seen by the naked eye. The discs are just 60 billionths of a meter thick, said the French news agency AFP.

The so-called "nanodiscs" are made of an iron-nickel alloy, the agency reported. When they are subjected to a magnetic field, the discs vibrate. This movement damages the membranes of cancer cells and causes them to self-destruct.

Elena Rozhkova, who co-authored the new study, has high hopes for the clinical application of nanodiscs, said AFP. She said that subjecting the discs to a magnetic field for about 10 minutes was enough to destroy 90 percent of cancer cells in lab tests.

Another scholar, Jon Dobson of Britain's Keele University, speculated that the body's own defenses could be persuaded to cooperate with the discs, said the agency. He suggested that antibodies could be used to guide the discs to tumor cells.

"This provides an elegant and rapid technique for targeting tumor destruction without the side effects associated with systemic treatments such as chemotherapy," said Dobson.

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