Important research to keep an eye on.
Photoimmunotherapy
. . . Innovative work to use light to activate drugs and the immune system in the body. He is developing the approach as a safer and more effective way to treat breast cancer than currently available chemotherapy drugs.
So-called photoimmunotherapy also has the potential to help those with breast cancer that has spread, which typically evolves to become resistant to chemotherapy. Metastatic disease is responsible for more than 90 percent of the 41,000 breast cancer deaths in the U.S. each year.
Washington University scientists led by Samuel Achilefu, PhD, have devised a way to apply light-based therapy to deep tissues never before accessible. They delivered light directly to tumor cells, in the form of an imaging agent frequently used in positron emission tomography (PET) scans. This light source, along with a novel cancer-targeting product and a chemotherapy drug, selectively kill cancer cells.
“The goal is to harness the power of light and cancer-specific tumor targeting strategy to effectively treat tumors while minimizing or even eliminating damage to neighboring healthy cells,” said Achilefu, the Michel M. Ter-Pogossian Professor of Radiology and a research member of Siteman Cancer Center. “By developing a better way to deliver existing drugs or new ones, we hope to extend and improve the lives of patients.”
. . . The method is aimed at treating patients with many different types of breast cancer, including triple-negative breast cancer, which often doesn’t respond to conventional therapies. Achilefu also plans to explore whether light therapy can prevent a recurrence of breast cancer if it is used as an annual treatment.
To read the entire article:
http://medicine.wustl.edu/news/achilefu-receives-inaugural-breast-cancer-research-award