Leukemia is a blood malignancy with a rate of new cases of 14.1 per 100,000 adults per year. Leukemic cells seek a way to escape from the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy drugs, leading to treatment failure. In this paper, we demonstrated the separation of circulating leukaemia cells using an antibody-conjugated iron oxide nanodisc (MND-Ab) under a low magnetic field gradient. Biodegradable magnetic nanodiscs were prepared by using iron oxide, BSA and the antibody IPO-M6, which is an anti-HL-60 antibody. Atomic force microscope studies show that the nano-discs were sprayed uniformly with an average size of 22+/-2.1 nm. The efficiency of cell capture was monitored with Prussian blue staining and fluorescence microscopy. A bar magnet was placed near the plate at 2 mm distance from the centre of the plate. The labelled cells were gathered near the magnet after 2 minutes. When the MND-Ab-HL60 cells were exposed to magnetic oscillations (5 min) 10 htz, 90 Guass), 92–94% of the cells were found apoptotic or dead in treated HL60 cells compared to the untreated control.