Cancer cells that make cancer spread throughout the body through the bloodstream and lymph fluid. It is said that a new treatment has been devised to destroy cancer cells in the blood with a laser. According to the latest research paper, which has not been published recently, it has succeeded in destroying cancer cells by irradiating a laser through the skin.
According to a research paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, a treatment method that destroys cancer cells in the blood using a laser was published. This treatment succeeded in accurately detecting cancer cells in 27 out of 28 cancer patients, and it was said to have succeeded in destroying cancer cells in real time with a high probability when cancer cells pass through blood vessels.
The research team revealed that the treatment with lasers was able to detect and destroy cancer cells before they create new tumors. Since the laser irradiates through the skin, there is a possibility that it will thoroughly destroy cancer cells in a non-invasive method.
The research team at Arkansas Medical School who participated in the study revealed that the technology has the potential to significantly inhibit cancer metastasis. Cancer expansion and metastasis account for the largest proportion of cancer-related deaths. There are two types of cancer, nuclear and metastatic, each of which has completely different tumor properties. Primary cancer refers to cancer that develops at the site. For example, if it occurs in the liver, it becomes primary liver cancer. Metastatic cancer refers to cancer that has metastasized from another site. For example, when cancer cells from primary liver cancer that occur in the liver metastasize and cause colon cancer, it becomes metastatic colon cancer.
The cause of tumor formation is primary, and when cancer cells from other sites have metastasized through blood and lymph, it is called metastatic.
Destroying circulating cancer stem cells (CTCs) before they become stable, which causes metastatic cancer, makes it possible to suppress the onset of metastatic cancer. In addition, if you can simply count how much CTC is in your body, your doctor will be able to diagnose and treat metastatic cancer more accurately.
For this reason, the research team is testing a cancer cell destruction system using a laser by gathering subjects suffering from melanoma or skin cancer. Energy is supplied to the blood of the subject who has laser irradiated the vein. Because melanoma CTC absorbs more energy sent by laser to blood than normal cells, CTC expands rapidly by heating. This thermal expansion can be detected using an ultrasonic transducer. This mechanism detects when the CTC is passing through the blood.
In addition, CTC can be destroyed in real time using a laser. The heat of the laser generates CTC vapor bubbles, which expand and burst, which can mechanically destroy the CTC.
The purpose of this research paper was to test the degree of CTC detection using lasers and ultrasonic transducers. However, the CTC detection mode at low output also succeeded in destroying 6 types of CTCs and succeeded in destroying 96% of cancer cells in the patient’s body. The research team expects to use higher power lasers to destroy CTCs more effectively.
The research team said that although there had been Eyeer for this technology 10 years ago, it has been tested for safety in animals and so on. FDA approval was required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before the clinical trial, but as this was obtained safely, this laser treatment system is said to be the world’s first non-invasive CTC diagnostic system proven to be effective in humans.
There are at least 100 systems that detect CTC, but in the existing system, blood collected from veins had to be analyzed in vitro. Also, among the existing CTC detection systems, only the system called CELLSEARCH has been approved by the FDA. The system processes small blood samples and takes snapshots of CTCs that may be present in the blood. However, this system is not yet widely used for cancer diagnosis and treatment.
In April, a research team at the University of Michigan revealed that it has developed a device that collects blood by attaching it to the wrist, detects and destroys CTC in the blood, and returns blood from which the cancer cells have disappeared into the body. However, this device is still in the stage of testing in dogs, and the amount of blood that can be handled is only a small amount, about 2-3 tablespoons per 2-3 hours.
The system developed this time has the feature that it can be used non-invasively without damaging the body. One liter of blood can be tested per hour. In addition, the CTC detection sensitivity is said to be 1,000 times higher than that of Cell Search. In the future, the research team will test the CTC detection destruction system using lasers through a larger population and investigate its effect on metastatic cancer by combining it with existing cancer treatment methods. Related information can be found here .