New approaches to treat cancer that are effective with minimal cytotoxicity are needed. We investigate gold nanorods (GNR) in human A-1 ovarian cancer cells to establish: 1) their cytotoxicity effects on cancer cells, 2) laser heating of intracellular GNR to produce thermal damage to malignant cells and 3) effects of combining external therapeutic photon beam with GNR on cancer cells. Different concentration of GNR (10 nm diameter and 40 nm length) were added to cancer cells to access their proliferation as a function of nanorod concentration and laser irradiation time. In addition, the question of how the combination of X-ray radiation and nanoparticles affects cancer cell survival was also addressed.