ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — A Rockville company will study the feasibility of a new cancer medicine with the large pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

CytImmune Sciences Inc. and AstraZeneca made the announcement on Thursday.

The two companies will work together to see whether they can transmit cancer drugs on extremely small gold particles.

CytImmune works in developing nanomedicine, which uses tiny particles of gold to carry cancer therapies directly to the site of the disease. The company says gold nanoparticles have been used safely since the 1930s to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Dr. Lawrence Tamarkin, CytImmune’s CEO, says the partnership aims to combine CytImmune’s nanotechnology research with AstraZeneca’s oncology compound to create a cancer therapy that may be widely applicable to solid tumors.

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