by Health Editor
This type of light can cause targeted temperature increases that induce cancer cell death. The research opens up a new perspective in the treatment of tumors
Thanks to the extreme light waves it will be possible to concentrate energy and target deep tumoral tissues in a precise and non-invasive way. the discovery of a group of researchers from the La Sapienza University of Rome, the Institute of Complex Systems of the National Research Council, the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and the Gemelli Irccs Polyclinic Foundation. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, opens up new perspectives in the treatment of cancer.
Optical tsunamis
Laser light has enormous potential for studying and treating cancer. Laser beams capable of penetrating deep into tumor regions would be of vital importance for phototherapy, a set of cutting-edge biomedical techniques that use visible and infrared light to treat cancer cells or to activate drugs and biochemical processes. However, most biological tissues are optically opaque and absorb the incident radiation, and this represents the main obstacle to phototherapy treatments. Transmitting intense and localized light beams inside cellular structures is therefore one of the key challenges for biophotonics. A new tool in cancer care.
The researchers, physicists and biotechnologists who conducted the study, discovered that optical tsunamis can form within tumor cell structures, light waves of extreme intensity known in many complex systems, which can be exploited to transmit intense laser light and concentrated through three-dimensional tumor samples of pancreatic cancer. They thus succeeded in transmitting laser light of extreme intensity through millimeter-sized tumors.
By studying laser propagation through tumor spheroids – explains Davide Pierangeli of the CNR – we realized that within a sea of weak transmitted light there were optical modes of extreme intensity. These extreme waves represent a super-intense source of micrometre-sized laser light within the tumor structure. They can be used to activate and manipulate biochemicals.
Claudio Conti, from La Sapienza University adds: Our study shows how extreme waves, which until now had remained unnoticed in biological structures, are capable of spontaneously transporting energy through tissues and can be exploited for new biomedical applications.
With this extreme laser beam – underlines Massimiliano Papi, of the Catholic University-Policlinico Gemelli – we could probe and treat a specific region of an organ in a non-invasive way. We have shown how such light can cause targeted temperature increases that induce cancer cell death, and this has important implications for photothermal therapies.
August 8, 2023 (change August 8, 2023 | 14:53)
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