Medical News Today (Nov. 29) -- A team of scientists at Illinois has developed drug-carrying nanoparticles that can find and kill cancer stem cells, a tiny group of rare cells that can hide in tissue and cause cancer to return years after tumors have been treated. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of delivering cancer stem cell-targeted therapy with a nanoparticle,” says lead investigator Dipanjan Pan, a professor of bioengineering.