A team led by Egyptian physicist Dr Ahmed El-Gendy reduced liver cancer cell viability by 63% in a laboratory experiment by moving magnetic nanoparticles inside the cells to generate mechanical forces that damage their structure, rather than using the magnetic field to heat them. The study’s findings were published days ago in Materials Today Chemistry.
How the particles mechanically move cancer cells
The technique involves introducing magnetic particles into cells and then exposing them to an alternating magnetic field, without using a surgical needle, a drug dose or deliberate heating of the cells. The field makes the particles move and rotate within the cell’s confined space, turning them into microscopic motors that generate mechanical forces and torques.
The research is the first practical application of the new technique developed by El-Gendy, a physics professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. The International Association of Advanced Materials in Sweden recently honoured the technique by awarding the researcher the 2026 Marie Curie Award in nanomedicine for cancer treatment.
Testing iron carbide on liver cancer cells
The team used nanoparticles made from iron carbide in the experiment and tested their effect on Hep-G2 cells, a laboratory model used to study liver cancer. The particles ranged in size from 35 to 154 nanometres, while the researchers used cell imaging and measurement techniques to confirm that the particles could enter the cells.
El-Gendy said the team was not seeking to raise the temperature significantly, but wanted to determine the effect of the movement itself. He explained that the magnetic field generates mechanical forces and torques on the particles, causing them to rotate and move inside the cell, and that this movement in a confined space can disrupt the cell’s structure.
The results showed that the disruption severely damaged the cancer cells and caused them to die in one of two ways: the first was apoptosis, or programmed cell death, and the second was necrosis resulting from direct damage to the cell. The observed effect therefore depends on the mechanical force produced by the particles inside the cell, rather than killing it by raising its temperature.
To establish that the damage resulted from movement rather than heat, the researchers tested the ability of the iron carbide particles to produce heating. El-Gendy said the recorded values were low and that the experiments showed no significant rise in temperature under the conditions used in the study.
By contrast, images of the cells showed clear disruption to their membranes after the magnetic field was applied while the particles were inside them. El-Gendy said these observations support the hypothesis his team has worked on for years: eliminating cancer cells through mechanical force rather than heat.
Why did the team choose iron carbide?
The team chose iron carbide because of its strong magnetic properties, as the success of the idea depends on how responsive the particles are to the field. The researchers also produced particles of different sizes and crystal phases to study how these variables relate to their magnetic behaviour and their ability to produce an effect inside cells.
El-Gendy explained that the ultimate aim was not to make a better magnetic particle in itself, but to determine how its physical properties could be converted into a force that acts inside a cancer cell. For this reason, the study included an analysis of the particles’ properties, along with an estimate of the forces and torques that could be generated on them when exposed to a magnetic field.
El-Gendy’s expertise in medical applications of magnetic particles — and do previous cancer studies begin here?
El-Gendy has more than 20 years’ experience studying magnetic nanoparticles and their medical applications. He has previously tested the idea in research involving other tumours, including prostate cancer and breast cancer, using animal models.
This research began as an attempt to overcome one of the problems of magnetic hyperthermia, in which particles are introduced into a tumour and then exposed to an alternating magnetic field, converting magnetic energy into heat. The temperature of the targeted area can reach about 40–45 degrees Celsius using this method, providing a level sufficient to kill the tumour.
El-Gendy noted that heat does not inherently distinguish between cancer cells and healthy cells, which is the equation the new approach seeks to change. Instead of focusing on how to heat a tumour, the aim becomes using magnetism to create a force inside the cancer cell. According to the researcher, the importance of the liver cancer experiment is not limited to recording a reduction in cell viability, but also includes trying to explain the physical mechanism behind this effect.
For this reason, the team linked the magnetic properties of the particles to the magnitude of the forces and torques they could produce under the field used in the experiment. El-Gendy stressed the need not to overinterpret the 63% figure, explaining that it does not represent the success rate of a treatment applied to liver cancer patients, but rather a reduction in the viability of cancer cells under specific laboratory conditions.
The study also does not yet establish whether the mechanism will work in the same way inside a real tumour, nor does it determine the appropriate dose for use. The researcher described the result as an experimental step along a different path, not a ready treatment for liver cancer, as this approach involves turning nanoparticles into precise mechanical tools inside the cancer cell using a magnetic field.
The next steps include understanding the mechanism more precisely, determining the dose and exposure regimen, and then testing safety and efficacy in larger animal models before investigating whether the same effect can be achieved inside the human body.
