  In biomedical research and the practice of cancer therapy, gold nanoparticles
have been used to visualize malignant tumors, as the heated bodies for
hyperthermia of cancer cells, as drug carriers to deliver drugs to a cancer
cell, but, to the best of our knowledge, they have not yet been used
consciously as the sources of terahertz (THz) radiation delivered to a cancer
cell that contributes to the inhibition of cell activity. It is predicted here
that gold nanoparticles less than 8 nm in size are sources of spontaneous THz
radiation, and the possibility of their application in oncology is due to the
known effects of THz radiation on the cells of living organisms. There are
indications that nanoparticles with a size comparable to the width of the major
groove of the DNA molecule will be the most effective. Another effect that has
not yet been taken into account in biomedical studies using gold nanoparticles
is that of local electric fields due to the contact potential difference above
edges and vertices of gold nanoclusters. The prerequisites and possibilities
for searching for the manifestations of these two effects when gold
nanoparticles are introduced into living cells of organisms are considered.
