Google has filed a patent application with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for a wearable device that could destroy cancer cells in the blood.

The filing titled “Nanoparticle Phoresis” describes a wrist-worn device that “can automatically modify or destroy one or more targets in the blood that have an adverse health effect”.

Said targets could include enzymes, hormones, proteins, cells or other molecules that, when present in the blood, may affect the health of the person wearing the device.

Google’s wearable device would transmit energy into the blood vessels to modify or destroy malignant cells.The wearable device does its “magic” by transmitting energy in the form of a radiofrequency pulse, a time-varying magnetic field, an acoustic pulse, an infrared or visible light signal into the blood vessels. This energy, the patent claims, can modify or destroy the unwanted cells.

One example Google describes deals with Parkinson’s disease where a wearable device could be used to destroy proteins which have been implicated as a partial cause of the disease. In a different scenario, the wearable would destroy malignant cells, thus diminishing the spread of cancer.

Google keeps investing heavily in novel health technologies through its Google X division. This past October, it emerged that the Mountain View-based giant was developing a pill that could detect cancer and other diseases. At the time, Google said that it was at least five years away from a product approved for use by doctors, but said it was working towards proactive detection rather than reactive treatment.

[Via: The Telegraph]