Implantable LED device uses light to treat deep-seated cancers
Certain types of light have proven to be an effective, minimally-invasive treatment for cancers located on or near the skin when combined with a light-activated drug. But deep-seated cancers, surrounded by tissue, blood, and bone, have been beyond the reach of light’s therapeutic effects. To…
Certain types of light have proven to be an effective, minimally-invasive treatment for cancers located on or near the skin when combined with a light-activated drug. But deep-seated cancers, surrounded by tissue, blood, and bone, have been beyond the reach of light’s therapeutic effects.
To bring light’s benefits to these harder to access cancers, engineers and scientists at the University of Notre Dame have devised a wireless, LED-device that can be implanted. This device, when combined with a light-sensitive dye, not only destroys cancer cells, it mobilizes the immune system’s cancer-targeting response as well. Their research was published in Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy.
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